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Watch the Watchers: LAPD officer database

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Re: Watch the Watchers: LAPD officer database

#31

Post by alwayslikethis »

mellosouls wrote: post #17

Unless there is an equivalent LAPD initiative that uploads the pictures of law-abiding citizens with names and other identifying info to the public web, there will be suspicions that this is an anti-police (rather than anti-police-surveillance-abuse) measure intended to intimidate and obstruct police work. Neither is it clear how representative the organizers are of those law-abiding citizens generally rather than a…

I wonder if it would be legal to use home surveillance cameras to identify police car license plates, facial recognition, to track individual police officers. Then you can have a good argument when you are trying to sue for illegal surveillance.

Re: Watch the Watchers: LAPD officer database

#32

Post by skinpop »

mellosouls wrote: post #17

Unless there is an equivalent LAPD initiative that uploads the pictures of law-abiding citizens with names and other identifying info to the public web, there will be suspicions that this is an anti-police (rather than anti-police-surveillance-abuse) measure intended to intimidate and obstruct police work. Neither is it clear how representative the organizers are of those law-abiding citizens generally rather than a…

the very concept of the police is a form of political ideology.

Re: Watch the Watchers: LAPD officer database

#33

Post by jdgoesmarching »

mellosouls wrote: post #17

Unless there is an equivalent LAPD initiative that uploads the pictures of law-abiding citizens with names and other identifying info to the public web, there will be suspicions that this is an anti-police (rather than anti-police-surveillance-abuse) measure intended to intimidate and obstruct police work. Neither is it clear how representative the organizers are of those law-abiding citizens generally rather than a…

They aren’t exactly shy about their goals:

“This website is intended as a tool to empower community members engaged in copwatch and other countersurveillance practices. You can use it to identify officers who are causing harm in your community”

“Political” is not the slur you think it is to activists. Ironically, the belief that good social action should be some sort of pure pragmatism unsullied by politics is itself a deeply embedded neoliberal ideology.

Plenty of people are anti-police, for good reason, and that position is just as ideological as yours. It’s fair to debate that position, but it’s naive to view political agitation as some sort of sneaky sinister plot. I promise these people, least of all the “genuine victims”, aren’t concerned with whether their tactics fall outside the Overton window of centrist-approved police protests.

Re: Watch the Watchers: LAPD officer database

#34

Post by LoganDark »

Ralo wrote: post #23
LoganDark wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can dump the entire DB by searching for a space character I abused this trick to perform local fuzzy searches for usernames, results would update with no delay on every keypress, the competing devs were so blown away and couldn't tell how I did it lol. Best exploit ever. It wouldn't have scaled but it was still so funny to see everyone else's reactions.

In my experience the vast majority of the time exploits are found over Ajax APIs. Developers just forget that sanitization client side isn't secure. It's a good party trick for sure.

The funny thing is that you actually didn't do it by searching for an actual space—you would search for an underscore, and they would convert it to a space after checking if the input is empty, but before trimming, so...

Re: Watch the Watchers: LAPD officer database

#35

Post by zo1 »

ryandrake wrote: post #18

I’m not sure I understand the point of Copwatching and documenting police abuses. Everyone knows about police abuses—the police even document their own abuses themselves with bodycams. It doesn’t matter to them because there are never consequences. It’s pointless to do all this documenting without a way to turn it into accountability.

[flagged]

Re: Watch the Watchers: LAPD officer database

#36

Post by systemvoltage »

jdgoesmarching wrote: post #33
mellosouls wrote: post #17

Unless there is an equivalent LAPD initiative that uploads the pictures of law-abiding citizens with names and other identifying info to the public web, there will be suspicions that this is an anti-police (rather than anti-police-surveillance-abuse) measure intended to intimidate and obstruct police work. Neither is it clear how representative the organizers are of those law-abiding citizens generally rather than a…

They aren’t exactly shy about their goals: “This website is intended as a tool to empower community members engaged in copwatch and other countersurveillance practices. You can use it to identify officers who are causing harm in your community” “Political” is not the slur you think it is to activists. Ironically, the belief that good social action should be some sort of pure pragmatism unsullied by politics is itself…

Anarchism is a political ideology though. OP is saying that there is much more than simply holding police abuse accountable.

Re: Watch the Watchers: LAPD officer database

#37

Post by moshun »

zo1 wrote: post #35
ryandrake wrote: post #18

I’m not sure I understand the point of Copwatching and documenting police abuses. Everyone knows about police abuses—the police even document their own abuses themselves with bodycams. It doesn’t matter to them because there are never consequences. It’s pointless to do all this documenting without a way to turn it into accountability.

[flagged]

Interesting that you consider the few avenues citizens have to hold police accountable as a path toward anarchy and “black thug culture”.

I’m curious if you have the same energy for the reasons police are being watched in the first place.

Re: Watch the Watchers: LAPD officer database

#38

Post by localplume »

skinpop wrote: post #32
mellosouls wrote: post #17

Unless there is an equivalent LAPD initiative that uploads the pictures of law-abiding citizens with names and other identifying info to the public web, there will be suspicions that this is an anti-police (rather than anti-police-surveillance-abuse) measure intended to intimidate and obstruct police work. Neither is it clear how representative the organizers are of those law-abiding citizens generally rather than a…

the very concept of the police is a form of political ideology.

what an insane take. police has existed in every form of society and it is necessary for a civilized society to function. its like being against roads, or hospitals, or public transportation.

the dichotomy of LA crime being out of control and LA people being so anti-cop will never fail to amuse me.

Re: Watch the Watchers: LAPD officer database

#39

Post by heavyset_go »

alwayslikethis wrote: post #31
mellosouls wrote: post #17

Unless there is an equivalent LAPD initiative that uploads the pictures of law-abiding citizens with names and other identifying info to the public web, there will be suspicions that this is an anti-police (rather than anti-police-surveillance-abuse) measure intended to intimidate and obstruct police work. Neither is it clear how representative the organizers are of those law-abiding citizens generally rather than a…

I wonder if it would be legal to use home surveillance cameras to identify police car license plates, facial recognition, to track individual police officers. Then you can have a good argument when you are trying to sue for illegal surveillance.

You could do one better with SDR units and use trilateration of police radios/radar to track them in real-time.

Re: Watch the Watchers: LAPD officer database

#40

Post by petabite »

ryandrake wrote: post #18

I’m not sure I understand the point of Copwatching and documenting police abuses. Everyone knows about police abuses—the police even document their own abuses themselves with bodycams. It doesn’t matter to them because there are never consequences. It’s pointless to do all this documenting without a way to turn it into accountability.

The difference is that bodycam footage disappears or is never released - citizen journalist footage is on YoutTube the next day
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