Keeping Schools Safe or Spying on Students?

Obviously reporter Emily Turner of Fox affiliate WGMB has a point of view and the gratuitous shot of her in the police car is a little much, but her report about a Louisiana's school district's reluctance to give police direct access to school surveillance cameras raises an interesting question about privacy rights.

It also brought to mind the recent case from Pennsylvania, where the camera in a student's school-issued laptop was remotely initialized and the student confronted by an administrator on the issue of possible drug sales from home. Not to mention, the subsequent revelation that the school district had setup a website to share captured images from other cases with local police.

The Woods Have Eyes

Herman Jacob was camping in South Carolina's Francis Marion National Forest, when he discovered a wire while gathering firewood near the primitive campsite, he shared with his a daughter and her friend.

Mr. Jacob followed the wire to a hidden camera along with an antenna, which because they had no markings, he removed the surveillance equipment and at some point, either in the woods or at home, he punched the camera's model number into Google and learned that it was "law enforcement grade".

Armed with the knowledge, Mr. Jacob contacted law enforcement agencies in the area, which prompted a return call from Mark Heitzman of the U.S. Forest Service, who asked for his camera back.

When contacted by Charleston's Post and Courier, a spokesperson for the Forest Service would only speak in generalities about the use of surveillance cameras in remote locations as a law enforcement tool and would give no specifics about convictions.

Though she did say that footage of non-targeted persons aren't "kept".

Paper Super-Sleuths "Elmer Fudd"

A couple of days ago, I provided a "Snip" pointing toward a Myrtle Beach Sun News article detailing the newspaper's appearance in court, where they were ordered to turn over any registration info in their possession about an anonymous commenter named "Elmer Fudd".

Mr. "Fudd" is the target of a defamation lawsuit brought by the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and the case is wholly based upon comments that he had made to the newspaper's forum.

It appears that all the newspaper had on the user was an email address (noadtax@gmail.com) and though they had no direct knowledge through their site registration, they discovered that the email address is also listed as contact for the owner of the Facebook page, "No Ad Tax".

And, the "No Ad Tax" Facebook page includes a link to a "No Ad Tax Petition" which was sponsored by the "No Ad Tax Organization of Myrtle Beach" -- Mark McBride is a leader in the "No Ad Tax" grassroots group.

Mr. McBride is a former Mayor and the current President of the Grand Strand Chamber of Commerce, a competing CoC and though he wouldn't comment about "cartoon characters" when contacted by the paper, the founder of the GSCoC has come forward to say that Mr. McBride has revealed himself to him and has assured him that his organization's computers weren't used to post the comments.

Update (12/7): More from the man who outed McBride & Locals React

You Have a Right to Waive Your Privacy

On June 28th, Fort Worth police conducted three "bar checks" and one of their stops was at the Rainbow Lounge, a club frequented by members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community.

Among the Rainbow's patrons that night, five people were cited for public intoxication and one fellow received a serious head injury, plus he was cited for assault and public intoxication.

An internal investigation by the police resulted in three officers getting a one or three day suspension for what transpired, but local community activists are outraged that Fort Worth Police and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission have found that no excessive force was used.

In an effort to better understand the situation, several local media outlets have banded to make an open records request for the final investigative report and because the city attorney's office feel that some witnesses may not want their names released because of the implications of the location, the city has asked the state for guidance as to whether witness names can be redacted.

They also plan to contact each witness mentioned in the report and give them the option of waiving their privacy.
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U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) has introduced legislation that would bar retaliatory measures against any active duty gay or lesbian service members, who choose to testify before the Armed Services Committee in upcoming hearings about lifting "Don't Ask/Don't Tell".

The activist community appears to be split on the measure - one spokesperson says it would be the first dent in the present policy, while the other basically says that you can't put a genie back in a bottle.