In the wake of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the FBI assumes an importance and influence it has not wielded since J. Edgar Hoover’s death in 1972. That is what makes today’s batch of stories from The Intercept, The FBI’s Secret Rules, based on a trove of long-sought confidential FBI documents, so critical: It shines a […]
Secret Docs Reveal: President Trump Has Inherited an FBI With Vast Hidden Powers…
2016 Closes With 140 Cops Being Killed in the Line of Duty…
A total of 140 law enforcement officers were killed in 2016 in line of duty deaths. The number of deaths increased by 10 over 2015’s 130 officers who were killed. The final death of the year came Friday night when Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Landon Weaver was shot and killed while investigating an alleged violation […]
“Code of Silence” Revisited: An Update on the Watts Investigation
On October 6, The Intercept published “Code of Silence,” a four-part investigation of a far-reaching criminal enterprise within the Chicago Police Department. For more than a decade, a team of gang tactical officers led by Sgt. Ronald Watts were major players in the drug trade radiating out from public housing developments on Chicago’s South Side…
Facebook Admits Handing Thousands of Its Users’ Details Over to British Authorities…
Social media giant Facebook has confessed to giving the personal details of thousands of its users to the British government this year. Facebook says that officials requested access to 7,199 profiles between January and June of 2016 – a 30 percent increase on last year…
They Have, Right Now, Another You…
A few months ago The Washington Post reported that Facebook collects ninety-eight data points on each of its nearly two billion users. Among this ninety-eight are ethnicity, income, net worth, home value, if you are a mom, if you are a soccer mom, if you are married, the number of lines of credit you have, […]
Ohio High Court Rules Dash-Cam Videos Are Public Record…
Law enforcement officials can redact investigative information from dash-cam videos but must release the remainder of recordings to the public, a unified Ohio Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. A case-by-case review will be used in the future to determine which portions of the videos are subject to withholding…
FBI Hacked Into 8k Computers in 120 Countries Based on One Warrant…
The FBI hacked into more than 8,000 computers in 120 countries during an investigation into a child pornography website with just one warrant, a court hearing transcript has shown. It represents the largest known law enforcement hacking campaign to date…
STUDY: Beware! Law Enforcement Spending Millions to Monitor Social Media…
A new study has found law enforcement agencies spent $4.75 million on social media monitoring tools between 2013 and 2016 to surveil the public and investigate possible crimes, although this sum is “massively understated”…
Who Knew?: A Stolen Car Returned with an Apology Note and Gas Money…
A woman from Portland, Oregon, was surprised this month when she discovered her stolen car had been returned to her. That wasn’t all: The car owner also found a letter of apology as well as money to replace the gas the thief used sitting inside the missing auto…