TL;DR: this is all fucking bullshit and the entire system needs to be scrapped as its been optimized to increase the number of stops, not correct wrong-doing.
Summary:
1. WhatsApp chat group alerts sheriff's deputies in Texas (known as the interdiction group) as to 'target' vehicles based on their travel history as collected by traffic camera/license plate readers (LPRs).
2. Stops from the 'interdiction group' have gone up over two years w/suspicious reasoning for stops, based largely on the myriad of reasons Texas law enforcement officers (LEOs) are free to stop vehicles. The results of these increased N in searches have resulted in fewer (percentage) of findings of wrong-doing.
3. Dashcam footage from the citizen stopped counters the LEO's claims that he went over the fogline several times. Bodycam footage of the later search show no evidence to support drugs that were supposedly indicated on by the K9 unit dispatched. Said K9's reward system has allegedly been altered by its handler to alert for reward, not for the presence of drugs.
4. Fictitious reasoning for stops are glossed over with a 'warning' or no-action which appeases most. This particular person sued, even though they were free to go, and it started a chain of events which uncovered the wrong-doing by LEOs.
5. This is all security theatre, at the expense of the citizenry.
Law enforcement is mostly mundane repetitive boring work.
It can't be easy sitting alongside a highway for hours on end, waiting for someone to do something that requires your intervention.
Police engage in shared fantasies. Which can lead them to hallucinate. They often end up wanting a crime to be committed just so they can intervene and exercise and validate their skill set.
Civilian behaviors will be observed, recorded, and matched: against a theory of a crime which may or may not have been committed. Depending how bored and unfulfilled the coordinated LEOs are, a dark fantasy of ongoing crime can be enabled, and confirmation bias follows immediately, with every civilian action (or inaction) being re-interpreted through the lens of an understandable rampant LEO desire -- They want so much to catch the bad guys that they will actually manufacture probable cause from stretched whole cloth, so they can believe a crime is in their purview and they're righteously on the case.
Otherwise it can become a really boring gig.
Advances in surveillance technologies and predeterminations of crime probabilities via automated software will only serve to add fuel to the fire of the aggregate LEO imagination.
What we witness here in Texas is the result of a shared fantasy. Remember that shared fantasies become more real the longer they are shared and sustained... even the "trace" amounts of imaginary drugs on which Max the dog alerted become a part of the now-permanent interdiction team's backstory.
This kind of thing is happening all over America, all the time. We face a crisis of fantasy addiction. So many are unhappy with reality that they are constantly fantasizing something better for themselves.
Not to pick on the LEOs, but they are supposed to be the best of us, holding the line, and not compromising their integrity for the transient satisfaction of an imagined felony stop.
No crime was committed
The pretext of the stop was a lie
The drug dog falsely alerted probably due to manipulation of his training
The officer repeatedly lied under oath
It looks like the entire interdiction operation requires that the officer lies at three distinct phases. (The pretext stop, the search, and in court)
Do we want our officers to lie under oath? Providing false testimony to the courts? Falsely accusing innocent people?
Pretty sure the answer is no.
Pretty sure the bible has some things to say about Bering false witness or some such.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 20.9 ms ] threadSummary:
1. WhatsApp chat group alerts sheriff's deputies in Texas (known as the interdiction group) as to 'target' vehicles based on their travel history as collected by traffic camera/license plate readers (LPRs).
2. Stops from the 'interdiction group' have gone up over two years w/suspicious reasoning for stops, based largely on the myriad of reasons Texas law enforcement officers (LEOs) are free to stop vehicles. The results of these increased N in searches have resulted in fewer (percentage) of findings of wrong-doing.
3. Dashcam footage from the citizen stopped counters the LEO's claims that he went over the fogline several times. Bodycam footage of the later search show no evidence to support drugs that were supposedly indicated on by the K9 unit dispatched. Said K9's reward system has allegedly been altered by its handler to alert for reward, not for the presence of drugs.
4. Fictitious reasoning for stops are glossed over with a 'warning' or no-action which appeases most. This particular person sued, even though they were free to go, and it started a chain of events which uncovered the wrong-doing by LEOs.
5. This is all security theatre, at the expense of the citizenry.
It can't be easy sitting alongside a highway for hours on end, waiting for someone to do something that requires your intervention.
Police engage in shared fantasies. Which can lead them to hallucinate. They often end up wanting a crime to be committed just so they can intervene and exercise and validate their skill set.
Civilian behaviors will be observed, recorded, and matched: against a theory of a crime which may or may not have been committed. Depending how bored and unfulfilled the coordinated LEOs are, a dark fantasy of ongoing crime can be enabled, and confirmation bias follows immediately, with every civilian action (or inaction) being re-interpreted through the lens of an understandable rampant LEO desire -- They want so much to catch the bad guys that they will actually manufacture probable cause from stretched whole cloth, so they can believe a crime is in their purview and they're righteously on the case.
Otherwise it can become a really boring gig.
Advances in surveillance technologies and predeterminations of crime probabilities via automated software will only serve to add fuel to the fire of the aggregate LEO imagination.
What we witness here in Texas is the result of a shared fantasy. Remember that shared fantasies become more real the longer they are shared and sustained... even the "trace" amounts of imaginary drugs on which Max the dog alerted become a part of the now-permanent interdiction team's backstory.
This kind of thing is happening all over America, all the time. We face a crisis of fantasy addiction. So many are unhappy with reality that they are constantly fantasizing something better for themselves.
Not to pick on the LEOs, but they are supposed to be the best of us, holding the line, and not compromising their integrity for the transient satisfaction of an imagined felony stop.
No crime was committed The pretext of the stop was a lie The drug dog falsely alerted probably due to manipulation of his training The officer repeatedly lied under oath
It looks like the entire interdiction operation requires that the officer lies at three distinct phases. (The pretext stop, the search, and in court)
Do we want our officers to lie under oath? Providing false testimony to the courts? Falsely accusing innocent people?
Pretty sure the answer is no. Pretty sure the bible has some things to say about Bering false witness or some such.
s/Bering/bearing/
Jesus H. N. Christ, people