Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, used his Instagram page to post hateful messages that referenced the recent police-involved killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. His hate filled posts included a silver automatic handgun with a wooden handle photo. This the gun believed to be used in the execution of two NYPD Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.
Reportedly, the Baltimore police sent a “warning flier” to warn the NYPD of the possibility Brinsley was in route to their city. Unfortunately the fax was received a mere five minutes before the murders.
The warning spotlights the fact the police departments across the country are trying to proactively identify potential threats of violence amid the social media chatter.
Earlier this week Reuters reported about the increased usage of Minority Report like data mining by law enforcement. This in-depth article considers the benefits and potential risks.
“Yet new data-mining technologies can now provide police with vast amounts of surveillance information and could radically increase police power. Policing can be increasingly targeted at specific people and neighborhoods — with potentially serious inequitable effects.
One speaker at a recent national law enforcement conference compared future police work to Minority Report, the Tom Cruise film set in 2054 Washington, where a “PreCrime” unit has been set up to stop murders before they happen.
While PreCrime remains science-fiction, many technology advances are already involved with predictive policing — identifying risks and threats with the help of online information, powerful computers and Big Data.”
Read the full story here.
Do you consider these tactics a good or bad thing?
