police

As a society, we have become used to difficult, inappropriate, and embarrassing pictures being uploaded to Facebook.

No, it hasn't yet stopped us from marveling, musing, and laughing at their content.

But we've become more understanding about humans' urges to display themselves being greater than their capacity to think through the consequences of such a display.

Still, we should reserve our judgment about an image posted to Facebook that featured Tom Keller, the police chief of Confluence, Penn.

It is impossible to know precisely what confluence of events led to this picture appearing on his Facebook page.

What'… Read more

Smartphones are so common now that it's easy to forget criminals will steal them if you give them the opportunity.

Apple device thefts in New York have gotten so bad that the New York Police Department created a team dedicated to recovering stolen iDevices, the New York Post reported today.

The team works with Apple to obtain ID numbers -- known as International Mobile Station Equipment Identity numbers -- for devices to help track down the stolen goods.

The number of thefts of such devices in the city soared last year, according to a report from the NYPD. The … Read more

When you make your Facebook profile picture that of Action Man (aka the British G.I. Joe), it can be a clue to your fascination with fantasy.

It also suggests that if there's a toy mortar in the background of the picture, that, too, might actually not be entirely real.

Please try telling that to the five carloads of police who raided Ian Driscoll's house in Tewkesbury, England, armed with guns and a search warrant.

"The Action Man looked a bit like me, so I decided to put it as my Facebook picture. I didn't even notice the mortar in the background," 43-year-old Driscoll explained to the Daily Mail.… Read more

BlackBerry devices typically have been the go-to phones for government accounts, but that seems to be changing. Apple is increasingly getting into the lucrative business contract game.

The New Zealand Police announced today that it has sealed the deal for 6,000 police officers to get an iPhone and 3,900 officers to also get an iPad, according to The National Business Review. The contract is for 10 years and the police force expects to spend around $159 million on the initiative.

Apparently, the New Zealand Police chose Apple products over BlackBerry, Google, and Microsoft after surveying its officers, who … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Verizon's booth at CES 2013 isn't just a hotbed for the latest smartphones and tablets. The company is also showing off a compelling headset dubbed Golden-i.

Why is it so compelling? It is designed to give police officers, firefighters, and paramedics access to a cloud-based software interface loaded with tools tied to their professions.

The lightweight headset, developed by Kopin and Ikanos Consulting, offers a plethora of tech (such as a 1.2GHz dual-core processor) for the wearer that essentially acts as a powerful hands-free computer. The device contains a 14-megapixel camera, GPS, gesture control, speech recognition, and a micro display at the end of the headset stalk that simulates a 15-inch screen. A microSD port allows the user to record images or video during use.… Read more

News Corp. axes The Daily.

The Daily, which was an ambitious tablet-only news publication backed by News Corp., is shutting its doors December 15. Launched back in February 2011, The Daily was an interactive newspaper stylized for consumption on the iPad. Best of all, a year's subscription went for only $40 and offered a wide variety of sections. While there will be no more issues of The Daily, its brand will live on other channels within News Corp.

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the first text message. On December 3, 1992, SMS pioneer Matti Makkonen successfully sent … Read more

A 15-year-old juvenile delinquent can't be completely prohibited from using Facebook, Twitter, or other social-media sites, a California state appeals court says.

The San Diego court ruled that a teenage boy who molested a toddler and grabbed and detained a teenage girl has a First Amendment right to use social media and chat rooms -- in part, the justices said, because his offenses didn't involve the Internet.

Those restrictions "are not tailored to Andre's convictions for violating another's personal liberty, willfully annoying and molesting another, unlawful use of force, and lewd and lascivious conduct, or … Read more

Police are allowed in some circumstances to install hidden surveillance cameras on private property without obtaining a search warrant, a federal judge said yesterday.

CNET has learned that U.S. District Judge William Griesbach ruled that it was reasonable for Drug Enforcement Administration agents to enter rural property without permission -- and without a warrant -- to install multiple "covert digital surveillance cameras" in hopes of uncovering evidence that 30 to 40 marijuana plants were being grown.

This is the latest case to highlight how advances in technology are causing the legal system to rethink how Americans' privacy … Read more

The law and Facebook have one thing in common: they are both repositories of large emotions.

Sometimes, though, they don't always work in tandem.

Word reaches me from Texas of a troubled happening after a court case in Mesquite. (The inhabitants are not called Mesquitos. Or are they?)

As CBS Houston tells it, the local police are up in arms after 30-year-old Melissa Welthall allegedly posted and spread photos of an undercover cop on Facebook.

Why would someone do that? This is a question so often asked before receiving a bafflingly human answer.

In this case, police say that … Read more