back to article Microsoft and NYPD install big data crime-fighting system

Microsoft and the New York Police Department have teamed up to an information gathering system that is designed to identify and shut down criminal activity on the streets of the Big Apple. Dubbed the Domain Awareness System (DAS), the software links up police databases, CCTV camera footage, reports from over 3,000 radiation …

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  1. William Boyle

    A reprieve of sorts

    Given Microsoft's track record in implementing large scale systems like this (not good), I think the criminals in New York can expect a bit of relief from the NYPD. Also, it will be interesting to see just how long it takes for someone like Anonymous to hack the system and publish its contents to the world?

    1. h4rm0ny
      Joke

      Re: A reprieve of sorts

      At least it's not Google. The police would just have to look for anyone whose targeted ads were knives and balaclavas.

    2. RICHTO
      Mushroom

      Re: A reprieve of sorts

      You mean large systems like Azure, Bing, Microsoft.com, Hotmail, Live Messenger, Outlook.com, Office 365, Teradata, Xbox Live, etc, etc?

  2. Wile E. Veteran
    Joke

    Sees everything?

    Wouldn't it just be easier to ask Mr. Finch and Mr. Reese to take care of things?

    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge

      Re: Sees everything?

      I rather suspect this might be what inspired them in the first place.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Shades of "total information awareness".

    It's all the rage these days. Gotta stay innovative and all that. Big changes up ahead. Get in early, partner with someone solid to do the heavy lifting, own a slice of the through, good for funding and standing and shit. Makes sense, right?

    Only I can't shake the feeling those pesky privercy advocates may have a point. Not only that, but that the problem is a bit bigger. That is, what is policing about, really? About ferreting out the perps, make'em pay for what they done? Or about fighting crime itself, and for that poring over the entire populace with a small comb to get every flea, every intention, the very beginnings of bad thought and nip it right in the bud?

    We believe we can go that far. Given the technology, we may be correct. But should we? Are we prepared to pay the price for that?

    1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

      Re: Shades of "total information awareness".

      Given that this is a system developed by Microsoft I don't think you need to worry, it'll spend more time patching and rebooting that being able to invade anyone's privacy :).

      However, joking aside, *this* system is about handling public data (video feeds et al), bringing together data that is already out there. AFAIK it does not invade bank accounts, phone records etc. so I'm less worried about privacy here.

      What I *AM* worried about is the kickback that has the potential to negate any proper review of needs versus acquisition. If another police force would be better served by another, non-Microsoft system it will now be pressured in foregoing any evaluation by NYPD as it has an interest in helping Microsoft.

      I *seriously* disagree with the co-opting of an organisation that is paid out of the public purse - this amounts to buying the police to act as a sales force for one commercial provider. That the NYPD recommends the decision, OK, but the kickback is a dangerous and IMHO unacceptable precedent as it promotes a monopoly.

      1. John A Blackley

        Re: Shades of "total information awareness".

        Please read a book called The Bell Ringers

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

    Who will guard the guardians?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

      Ooh, look you've read Watchmen.

      The point of the phrase is that it's targeted at vigilantes, police, by definition, are watched by the state.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

        "are watched by the state."

        Who watches the state ?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

          > "are watched by the state."

          >

          > Who watches the state ?

          The People..... at least in a democracy

          1. undeadMonkey93
            Meh

            Re: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

            In theory, yes. But most of the public are happy consuming lowest common denominator media like the X Factor and reading Hello! magazine instead watching the state and following current affairs.

          2. John A Blackley

            Re: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

            "The People..... at least in a democracy"

            Most people in most democracies are too lazy to watch anything except crap television.

          3. tom dial Silver badge
            FAIL

            Re: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

            Based on the average of election results, this statement is false.

      2. h4rm0ny

        Re: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

        "Ooh, look you've read Watchmen. The point of the phrase is that it's targeted at vigilantes, police, by definition, are watched by the state."

        Actually, the latin is attributed to Juvenal and traditionally always been about political corruption - i.e. who shall make sure the the police obey the law? You've almost entirely inverted the original intent by saying it refers to vigilantes. The film Watchmen might (don't know) but the latin quote isn't from there unless they repeated it.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

      > Who will guard the guardians?

      Communist .. sorry ... I meant to say Islamofasist :)

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mayor Bloomberg belongs in prison

    I hope the whole damn thing crashes and burns. There wouldn't be as much crime if people could carry guns like in the US Constitution. Taxes would DECREASE as well. (where people have less gun laws, they also have less taxes - reference: cafr1.com the cafr man talks about this somewhere in that pile.) Bloomberg doesn't much like the US Constitution though, that's the way these constitution hating scumbag police state ecofascist psychopaths roll. Now people that try to protect the constitution are terrorists--it's backwards but that's to be expected from shoving an organization which is in complete opposition to the US Constitution aka the "DHS". Really the shit that's fucking america all started when that organization was activated. They want a globalist bankster controlled new world order, and this latest piece of crap fits the bill for carrying out the martial law and concentration camp (fema camp) plan. It's just another cog to fuck over the people with, while the banksters and oath breaking officials with all their foreign globalist ties, who enable them, continue their orgies of treason.

    Before you vote this down. Know that your vote won't change the truth.

    1. frank ly

      Re. Taxes would decrease

      Have you heard of a thing called 'causality'?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Mayor Bloomberg belongs in prison

      NURSE! He's out of bed again. Fetch the screens!

    3. cocknee

      Re: Mayor Bloomberg belongs in prison

      "Before you vote this down. Know that your vote won't change the truth."

      just like your paranoid ramblings - nutter!

      quick, the feds are coming for you! they're at the door!!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Mayor Bloomberg belongs in prison

        cocknee said:

        "just like your paranoid ramblings - nutter!"

        Name one thing which I said, which was paranoid, and gives you the right to call me nutter. I will source every motherfucking thing I said.

        All this information is out there, but it isn't going to come on your tv, corrupt officials don't inform the public, when their goal is war, mayhem, theft, and murder.

        ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS and NBC will not touch anything with the word "CAFR" in there, that's a fact. They aren't journalists, they are propagandists, and they write what their fucking lawyers tell them to write. In other words, the news is what their lawyers say it is.

        POTUS Controls the FCC board, and the FCC controls the stations. The end result is you get to hear the president's propaganda, and there's no law against lying on the broadcast spectrum.

        DHS is in opposition to the US Constitution. They make it intermittent, that's a fact.. Activating such an organization in the first place is TREASON for anyone who swore an oath.

        Furthermore it's not funny you joking about real patriots, taking the time to point out real shit happening, not the fluffy bunny bullshit you get on the fascist corporate media. Yet all you can do is call them a nutter. You should go watch the Rothchild olympics. That way you can feel less paranoid with all those fucking rooftop missiles pointed at you.

        The establishment has the Constitution on the run...

        Ask all those kids at UC Davis that got pepper sprayed.

        Ask the protesters at OWS who got beaten down

        Ask the veteran who got a flash bomb in his face in Oakland

        Ask Luke Rudowski how much the establishment obeys the constitution.

        There's nothing but criminals running the country! It's not paranoid delusion. If I steal a 6 pack, I get time in jail, but if banksters steal trillions - nothing . crickets. But that's all part of my paranoid delusion as well.

        Gibson Guitars CEO must be another paranoid delusion.

        RAW Milk farmers , another paranoid delusion.

        Cannabis dispensaries being shut down after the voters approved medical cannabis, attacks on Oaksterdam, Harborside, vapor room, Los Angeles, etc. all just a bunch of delusions, they don't have chronic pain, or other health problems because the establishment has been stealing their money for the past 30 years, and dumping more and more toxic shit into everything across the same time span. The establishment isn't pushing everyone back underground again?

        Crap in the environment.

        Aluminum, Barium, Strontium (GeoEngineering), Fluoride, GMO HFCS(Sugar) , BPA (plastic), and on and on and on and on and on.

        The feds didn't come for me at my door, they came for me at my mother fucking websites. With a bunch of unconstitutional, classified, and vague copyright laws which are destroying people in alternative media who can not wade through the shit with million dollar lawyers.

        I take this time to point out you are the fucking asshole, not me. I do what I can to help others, and I try to spread awareness. You make a joke out of it. Treat it like a fucking cartoon. It's not a cartoon you fucking asshole. This technology will be abused, just like everything else which is electronic, telco's, electronic voting, electronic poll books, ionospheric heaters, Siemens/SCADA, if it's electronic, it is actively being exploited

        At some point, you will come to understand all this shit is interconnected, and on purpose by the establishment. Then you can enjoy the little fucking asshole punks who come along as take swipes at you.

        Let's drain your fucking bank accounts and call you a paranoid rambling nutter.

        You are a cocksucker is what you are. People like you don't give me hope for Humanity's future. I know your type, it's exactly why we are where we are at. You turn a blind eye to shit you don't understand, or feel uncomfortable with, or are actually you profit from, and wham bam in 30-40 years it comes back to bite you in the ass. You think this magically happened, nobody could have predicted it, it's the same old shit you cocksuckers always say. Finally you've met someone who will call bullshit on your bullshit

        1. cocknee
          Big Brother

          Re: Mayor Bloomberg belongs in prison

          "just like your paranoid ramblings - nutter!"

          "Name one thing which I said, which was paranoid, and gives you the right to call me nutter. I will source every motherfucking thing I said."

          I'm sorry, I should have said paranoid deluded nutter.

          Patriots my arse, more fucking nutters that'll beleive anything other nutters tell them. You're all paranoid.

          Yes there's corruption and misinformation in the world and the US is top of the league with it's bent media Fux News etc but there isn't an illuminati conspiracy. There's self serving incompetance such as the Patriot Act but that's supported by the same trailer-trash mentality anti-fed/jew/muslim/mexican/catholic/lefty moron that quotes the right to bear arms being the solution to all the ills

          grow up

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Mayor Bloomberg belongs in prison

            You keep calling me paranoid.

            But it's not me that's paranoid, I am not buying a bunch of guns and explosives and setting up an unimaginable amount of spy operations. They are.

            Your argument just fell apart completely

            They practice full spectrum dominance. Not me, yet you attack me for telling you about it. You are the one who perpetuates their conspiracy, by denial and refusal to recognize the facts. Either that or you work for them, and you already broke your oath.

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn8oy9NHag4

            You can't figure out what race I am so you berate every race. That trick is old.

            You said, "There's self serving incompetance such as the Patriot Act"

            But where you fail is the patriot act wasn't self serving "incompetence", it was PLANNED CONSPIRED TREASON. You wouldn't be savvy to this, and the seriousness, until you serve, and understand how things work and who is in charge..

            Your out of weapons except name calling.

            Try to have a nice day. Go watch the video.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Mayor Bloomberg belongs in prison - what?

      > There wouldn't be as much crime if people could carry guns like in the US Constitution.

      "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed", Amendment 2 - Right to Bear Arms

      "where people have less gun laws, they also have less taxes"

      That's cause there are less people ...

      > that's the way these constitution hating scumbag police state ecofascist psychopaths roll ...

      Are you on drugs or taking the piss ?

      1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

        Re: "on drugs or taking the piss?"

        The two are not mutually exclusive, but I think you forgot "deluded".

        I'd vote for "on drugs and deluded", keeping the good ol' 2 out of 3 rule alive :)

    5. Jon Double Nice
      IT Angle

      Re: Mayor Bloomberg belongs in prison

      Yes yes, just unroll this bit of tin foil and pop it on your head would you, there's a good chap.

    6. RICHTO
      Mushroom

      Re: Mayor Bloomberg belongs in prison

      Lol. What do you think of Echelon then?

  6. xyz Silver badge
    Devil

    I don't like systems like this but....

    ...c'mon, you've got to admit that it looks like a belting piece of development and integration. And if all that's back ended by SQL server instances then bloody hell. Imagine if Oracle or IBM had tried to implement this, we'd be looking at another fiasco.

    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge

      Re: I don't like systems like this but....

      IBM did the original NY 911 system and the NYPD gave them an unrealistic response time.

      getting real time response out of a mainframe is challenging.

      1. tom dial Silver badge

        Re: I don't like systems like this but....

        But getting ~1 second response time for each of thousands of concurrent users is standard for a mainframe, and probably more than adequate for 911 - type systems where the users operate at human speeds. Mainframes (e. g., zSeries) also have reliability, availability, and servicibility that lesser hardware may not have.

        I'm not saying mainframes are best for an emergency call handling service, just that it might not be an unreasonable choice.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cool stuff

    And likely to be very useful to the NYPD. Provided, that is, they get to play with it. It's not just a crime-fighting tool but also a great surveillance tool.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Cool stuff

      > And likely to be very useful to the NYPD. Provided, that is, they get to play with it. It's not just a crime-fighting tool but also a great surveillance tool.

      Yea, wait until they start to spy on your garbage bins like they do in this country. "Bin Crime"

  8. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Big Brother

    Perhaps the NYPD should change it's motto.

    I was thinking of something like

    "We are everywhere."

    Be seeing you.

  9. Trollslayer
    Flame

    NYPD think they are the FBI

    This is the local poice force who put a lot of effort into global Islamacist threats and spy on local muslims where there is no probable cause.

    3,000 radiation sensors???!!!!

    1. RICHTO
      Mushroom

      Re: NYPD think they are the FBI

      Probably Infra Red radiation sensors. So they can detect when the donuts are ready....

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NYPD are overstepping their legal boundaries, so is Bloomberg

    Ask the Muslims in Buffalo, NY and those outside of NY state who were on the NYPD watch list, followed, photographed, garbage being searched, private records being searched and getting bugged too! NYPD only had to say it was a mtter of "Homeland Security" and bankers, phone & credit card companies just gave them records without any paperwork or search warrants.

    Tell me those cops in NYC aren't using racial/religious profiling & lying to get the information. What makes them any better than thieves, saboteurs or terrorists? In fact what is the difference between NYPD and the Gestapo, Stasi, KGB, etc,etc? Besides the fact they are supposed to be honoring an oath to uphold the Constitution?

    Department of Homeland (In) Security is no better. More surveilliance does not mean better surveilliance.

    Putting this stuff in the hands of Nanny Bloomberg is just a disaster waiting to happen.

    The Anonymous Coward that people are calling a paranoid nutter is just telling truths that people don't want to hear. What they don't understand won't hurt them or will it?

    When bankers that lose 400 million of investors money get a slap on the wrist and peaceful Occupy Wall Street protesters get gassed, shot and beaten and sent to jail, don't you think there is some disparity in the justice being served? Those protesters were completely peaceful until the NYPD Police Batons, Pepper Spray and Rubber Bullets came out. Any violence that happened to the NYPD after that was well deserved.

    Who went to jail for the collapse of Wall Street, the Housing Market and the World Economy? That's right, no one. Does that give some small creedence to the argument that some secret group of Bankers actually run the world?

    Remember the words of Martin Niemoller (with my paraphrasing):

    When the Nazis (NYPD) came for the communists (Muslims, YOU Etc),

    I remained silent;

    I was not a communist.

    When they locked up the social democrats,

    I remained silent;

    I was not a social democrat.

    When they came for the trade unionists,

    I did not speak out;

    I was not a trade unionist.

    When they came for the Jews,

    I remained silent;

    I wasn't a Jew.

    When they came for me,

    there was no one left to speak out.

    The one thing that people don't realize in this UK based forum (and elsewhere) regarding the purpose of the Second Amendment is that it's real purpose is to allow The People, the tools (guns) they need to wrest government away from those in power when those in power overstep their bounds. Does it not appear to any of you out there that there is a severe misuse of official power going on here in the USA and in Brittain and elswhere?

    "The People of These United States" have an OBLIGATION to overthrow an unjust government. That time is getting closer every day and this "Big Brother" system is just more proof of the moral failure of State, Municipal and Federal goverments everywhere. They have NO RIGHT to this level of surveilliance.

    .

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: NYPD are overstepping their legal boundaries, so is Bloomberg

      Thank you - from that anonymous source.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: NYPD are overstepping their legal boundaries, so is Bloomberg

        You're welcome as well. Too bad that people don't understand what is actually happening in the world or question "Authority" enough for the real truth to come out.

        This is what happens when people have been brainwashed by biased news reporting and educations. They indiscriminantly discount valid information because "It couldn't possibly be true, CNN/MSNBC/Fox Etc. told me so". The Dumbing Down of America is happening every day.

        I have some reluctant involvement in the surveilliance industry selling cameras and systems and I am not at all happy with what I see happening with that information. Far too easy for this info to be misused by the wrong people.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ah ha....but what if "the tinfoil brigade" is on to something....

    Mr AC's video pointer is to a Cryptome conference on the NYPD's Ring of Steel project (similar to those deployed in London and Belfast during the "troubles").

    Since AC's posting it has now garnered 248 views or so, probably all El Reg commentards.

    If you like cryptome's stuff the video is kind of interesting.

    On a completely different note, has anyone ever tried to send an encrypted attachment through Microsoft's new email service Outlook.com? Well guess what, you can't.! Forefront is now the new gate-keeper of our hard won security stance.

    My guess is that MS is either working for the man. 100% or Ballmer has just bought a mansion in the Big Apple (soon to be renamed the Big WIndow).

    To the AC, you will have to expect some flak when you come out with all guns blazing (no pun intended) but I will agree with one thing, this post 911 police-state bullshit has gone way too far. Keep talking

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Derp

    The comment section on a UK based IT news site totally seems like the appropriate place to spout your American libertarian propaganda.

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