Baltimore Police Officer Robbed and Shot (in broad daylight)

GrimReaper · Aug 10, 2019

I've been pondering this for a while.. Almost everyone has a cell phone and every phone has GPS or can at least be located by triangulation.

I wonder if the police could get a warrant for the cell providers, Google or apple to find what phones were at the crime scene when the crime occurred. I know for a fact that Google tracks your location history on android phones, apple probably does too on their phones. .

I'm guessing specific info or evidence would have to be provided in order to get a warrant and a request to provide a list of phones at x location at x time would not be sufficient.

It could be a good way to solve crimes but there are a lot of privacy issues with that and it's probably a road we dont want to go down.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Steve_Zissou · Aug 10, 2019

GrimReaper said:
I've been pondering this for a while.. Almost everyone has a cell phone and every phone has GPS or can at least be located by triangulation.

I wonder if the police could get a warrant for the cell providers, Google or apple to find what phones were at the crime scene when the crime occurred. I know for a fact that Google tracks your location history on android phones, apple probably does too on their phones. .

I'm guessing specific info or evidence would have to be provided in order to get a warrant and a request to provide a list of phones at x location at x time would not be sufficient.

It could be a good way to solve crimes but there are a lot of privacy issues with that and it's probably a road we dont want to go down.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

That's some China-tier "Big Brother" shit and the less of it we have, the better. I'd much rather see horrific crimes go unsolved than see us institute anything even close to that.

Who was it that said that it was better to see 100 guilty men walk free than to see one innocent man go unjustly punished?

Biggfoot44 · Aug 10, 2019

That, or the popularity of blister pack cell phones for cash amongst the freelance pharmaceutical reps .

BeoBill · Aug 10, 2019

GrimReaper said:
I've been pondering this for a while.. Almost everyone has a cell phone and every phone has GPS or can at least be located by triangulation.

I wonder if the police could get a warrant for the cell providers, Google or apple to find what phones were at the crime scene when the crime occurred. I know for a fact that Google tracks your location history on android phones, apple probably does too on their phones. .

I'm guessing specific info or evidence would have to be provided in order to get a warrant and a request to provide a list of phones at x location at x time would not be sufficient.

It could be a good way to solve crimes but there are a lot of privacy issues with that and it's probably a road we dont want to go down.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

OK, find the needle in the haystack. Where's Waldo? I think you've been watching too many movies. That's also assuming that the perp didn't ditch/sell their phone and get a burner phone at Walmart to use.

Tungsten · Aug 10, 2019

Things are crazy out there. Prayers for the officer

Mr H · Aug 10, 2019

Officer is stable and responding to commands to squeeze staff's hands.

rambling_one · Aug 10, 2019

Mr H said:
Officer is stable and responding to commands to squeeze staff's hands.

What great news!

danb · Aug 11, 2019

GrimReaper said:
I've been pondering this for a while.. Almost everyone has a cell phone and every phone has GPS or can at least be located by triangulation.

I wonder if the police could get a warrant for the cell providers, Google or apple to find what phones were at the crime scene when the crime occurred. I know for a fact that Google tracks your location history on android phones, apple probably does too on their phones. .

I'm guessing specific info or evidence would have to be provided in order to get a warrant and a request to provide a list of phones at x location at x time would not be sufficient.

It could be a good way to solve crimes but there are a lot of privacy issues with that and it's probably a road we dont want to go down.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Steve_Zissou said:
That's some China-tier "Big Brother" shit and the less of it we have, the better. I'd much rather see horrific crimes go unsolved than see us institute anything even close to that.

Who was it that said that it was better to see 100 guilty men walk free than to see one innocent man go unjustly punished?

There have actually been a few Supreme Court cases on this very topic.

It is theoretically possible to do this, but I doubt a court would give them a general warrant for all phones within a radius, under the more recent Supreme Court case.

Also, criminals are well aware of the the use of GPS data to convict them... so they may have turned off their phones. may be a dry hole.

dblas · Aug 11, 2019

GrimReaper said:
I've been pondering this for a while.. Almost everyone has a cell phone and every phone has GPS or can at least be located by triangulation.

GPS triangulation of a cell phone only works if the GPS is turned on, and the phone is actively using an app, or an active phone call for the GPS data to be transmitted.

GrimReaper said:
I wonder if the police could get a warrant for the cell providers, Google or apple to find what phones were at the crime scene when the crime occurred. I know for a fact that Google tracks your location history on android phones, apple probably does too on their phones.

Google does that based on cell tower data, much like Disney tracks all of the phones at Disney World by their respective IP addresses that have auto connected to the wifi in the park. Google also scrapes the GPS info off of open apps that are using and transmitting the GPS data.

GrimReaper said:
I'm guessing specific info or evidence would have to be provided in order to get a warrant and a request to provide a list of phones at x location at x time would not be sufficient.

You would be correct.

GrimReaper said:
It could be a good way to solve crimes but there are a lot of privacy issues with that and it's probably a road we dont want to go down.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Not really for the reasons above, the idea is good, the technology doesn't work like the TV and movies make people believe it does.

danb · Aug 11, 2019

dblas said:
Google does that based on cell tower data, much like Disney tracks all of the phones at Disney World by their respective IP addresses that have auto connected to the wifi in the park. Google also scrapes the GPS info off of open apps that are using and transmitting the GPS data.

Including Google maps. Keep in mind, Google writes a lot of these "free" apps for the purpose of collecting and selling data and has data-sharing (selling) arrangements with many other companies. So does Apple, btw. If you go to a restaurant, they can push a notification to you to review the restaurant. Very spooky.

dblas · Aug 11, 2019

danb said:
Including Google maps. Keep in mind, Google writes a lot of these "free" apps for the purpose of collecting and selling data and has data-sharing (selling) arrangements with many other companies. So does Apple, btw. If you go to a restaurant, they can push a notification to you to review the restaurant. Very spooky.

Again, google maps only sends out the GPS data if the app is open. If no apps are open that use GPS, then no GPS data is transmitted. This applies to all apps whether it be google, android, or apple.

As for the push notifications to review the restaurant, if you have auto connect to wifi turned on, then they read your IP address via wifi and push the ad to you via your open web browser you are using while you are sitting there.

Turn off the GPS option for all apps that do not absolutely need them, and turn off auto connect for wifi, and most of those things don't happen.

danb · Aug 11, 2019

dblas said:
Again, google maps only sends out the GPS data if the app is open. If no apps are open that use GPS, then no GPS data is transmitted. This applies to all apps whether it be google, android, or apple.

Not quite. Android apps obtaining a GPS location are using Google operating system location services in the background (i've written apps that do this). What people know as "google maps" is a collection of location services, plus a user interface, which any app on the phone can run, even in the background. Google maps is basically part of the android operating system, so you can bring up Google maps inside another app, and for example show a mini version of the satellite map in another app. This is independent of the Google maps "App" people know.

I have never written an Apple IOS app, i've been told is basically the same.

dblas said:
As for the push notifications to review the restaurant, if you have auto connect to wifi turned on, then they read your IP address via wifi and push the ad to you via your open web browser you are using while you are sitting there.

Nope, based on GPS. I know this for a fact, i've received these spooky requests when wifi was off and maps was closed.

dblas said:
Turn off the GPS option for all apps that do not absolutely need them, and turn off auto connect for wifi, and most of those things don't happen.

Turn off GPS, period. Better yet, the phone. See above: apps obtaining GPS on android are using Google location services.

Allen65 · Aug 11, 2019

danb said:
Turn off GPS, period. Better yet, the phone. See above: apps obtaining GPS on android are using Google location services.

Disabling location services in your phone does not prevent carriers from tracking your location via tower data. And shutting off location services only disables the location API for user applications. It does not prevent the kernel, and system-level software from continuing to track location via GPS or other mechanisms.

Only airplane mode, pulling the battery, or driving over the phone with a large piece of construction equipment eliminates all ability to track in real time. Airplane mode doesn't prevent the phone from tracking location and storing a breadcrumb trail until the phone has external comms again.

danb · Aug 11, 2019

Allen65 said:
Disabling location services in your phone does not prevent carriers from tracking your location via tower data. And shutting off location services only disables the location API for user applications. It does not prevent the kernel, and system-level software from continuing to track location via GPS or other mechanisms.

Only airplane mode, pulling the battery, or driving over the phone with a large piece of construction equipment eliminates all ability to track. And airplane mode doesn't prevent the phone from tracking location and storing a breadcrumb trail until the phone has external comms again.

Right, good point.

PowPow · Aug 12, 2019

Allen65 said:
Disabling location services in your phone does not prevent carriers from tracking your location via tower data. And shutting off location services only disables the location API for user applications. It does not prevent the kernel, and system-level software from continuing to track location via GPS or other mechanisms.

Only airplane mode, pulling the battery, or driving over the phone with a large piece of construction equipment eliminates all ability to track in real time. Airplane mode doesn't prevent the phone from tracking location and storing a breadcrumb trail until the phone has external comms again.

What a wonderful tool it is for a totalitarian government to have access to on each of its citizens: a device that listens, watches, records, tracks, understands, and knows its user.

Doctor_M · Aug 12, 2019

Officer talking and gave a message of love to all his well wishers.

God Bless. Keep fighting, Sgt.

psucobra96 · Aug 12, 2019

This sounds like a hit, why would they chase him down? Doesn’t make sense.

rseymorejr · Aug 12, 2019

PowPow said:
What a wonderful tool it is for a totalitarian government to have access to on each of its citizens: a device that listens, watches, records, tracks, understands, and knows its user.

And we willingly buy them ourselves and carry them 24/7

Yellowdog · Aug 12, 2019

Both perps arrested this afternoon. One, at least is tied to an earlier murder

Allen65 · Aug 12, 2019

rseymorejr said:
And we willingly buy them ourselves and carry them 24/7

And now the market is almost exclusively phones that have nonremovable batteries so you can never guarantee they're truly "off". :tinfoil:

Baltimore Police Officer Robbed and Shot (in broad daylight)

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