“Google Glass may soon become a favored tool for law enforcement agencies in the United States,” Richard Byrne Reilly reports for VentureBeat.
“The New York City Police Department’s massive and controversial intelligence and analytics unit is evaluating whether Google Glass is a decent fit for investigating terrorists and helping cops lock up bad guys, VentureBeat has learned,” Reilly reports. “The department recently received several pairs of the modernist-looking specs to test out.”
“The news that the country’s largest police department is eagerly beta-testing Google’s products comes at a sensitive time for the company, given its entanglement in various intelligence-gathering efforts from spy agencies in the U.S. and abroad,” Reilly reports. “A spokesman for Google said the company was not working with law enforcement agencies on the project and that the NYPD likely acquired the glasses through the Google Glass Explorer program.”
“The chief information officer of the San Francisco police department, Susan Merritt, said that her department has yet to test the wearable Google computers. But she says the applications for law enforcement are potentially huge,” Reilly reports. “The San Francisco department currently deploys Samsung S4 smartphones for cops working the street. Merritt says the S4 has become an integral tool because it enables officers to access the department’s criminal database to run warrant checks and pull up mugshots of wanted suspects in real time.”
MacDailyNews Take: Why in Jobs’ name is San Francisco using South Korean knockoffs of American products when Apple Inc. is not only an American company, but whose headquarters are located a mere 43 miles away? Who made that decision, exactly?
“Google Glass could have a similar value proposition for police forces, Merritt said, pointing out that wireless facial recognition software is one potential use,” Reilly reports. “But the glasses could run afoul of civil liberty groups who say Google Glass and their wireless software programs could encroach on the rights of innocent citizens, especially in a city like San Francisco. Asked about these issues, Merritt deferred answering… So far in New York, the NYPD official says, it’s too early to tell.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Woz was right about something today: The United States risks becoming a police state. And, we simply do not currently see the type of quality people in place who possess the wherewithal to do what’s right. Short of Ben Franklin et al. reanimating themselves and clawing their way up topside again, this country just might be doomed.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]