Fox News recently exposed the use of a hidden face and license place scanner being used by a Post Office in Denver, CO. One hour after Fox discovered the spy camera it was ripped from the ground.
The cameras, managed by the agencies’ police force, the United States Postal Inspection Service, was discovered by a customer hidden inside a utilities box last November. The camera evidently was in use throughout the Christmas season.
Managers inside the post office tell FOX31 Denver they were unaware customers were being photographed outside and that the surveillance was not part of the building’s security monitoring.
A spokesperson for Postal Inspection Service declined to address the specific reason for the domestic surveillance, but admitted the agency had a “number of cameras at their disposal.”
Pamela Durkee, a Federal Law Enforcement Agent and U.S. Postal Inspector, sent an email to FOX31 Denver explaining, “(We) do not engage in routine or random surveillance. Cameras are deployed for law enforcement or security purposes, which may include the security of our facilities, the safety of our customers and employees, or for criminal investigations. Employees of the Postal Inspection Service are sworn to uphold the United States Constitution, including protecting the privacy of the American public.”
FOX31 Denver reviewed criminal search warrants on file in city, county, and federal court but none appeared to be related to the Golden post office camera set-up. The Postal Inspection Service would not confirm or deny that the camera was collecting data for a specific case or cases.
Lee Tien, an attorney for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, says more and more federal agencies are getting away with conducting surveillance and collecting personal data of citizens without a warrant signed by a judge.
“Part of being a responsible, constitutional government is explaining why it is doing surveillance on its citizens,” Lee told Halsne. “The government should not be collecting this kind of sensitive information. And it is sensitive! It`s about your relationships, your associations with other people, which can be friendship or political or religious. The idea that we give up that privacy simply because we use the U.S. mail is, I think, a silly idea.”
Lee says EFF has been fighting for greater government transparency when it comes to the way agencies like the FBI and the National Security Agency have been vacuuming up massive amounts of cell phone, email and license plates data and storing them in a central computer system.
Lee says, “The idea that they would be able to keep that information forever and search through it whenever they want to – that seems very, very wrong to us because it means you’ll be able to accumulate over time a lot of innocent peoples’ information and then use it in the kinds of ways that would not be overseen by any kind of court or independent third party.”
FOX31 Denver filed multiple Freedom of Information Act requests with the Postal Service, Postal Inspection Service, and Office of the Inspector General in an attempt to identify the cost and scope of the Postal Inspection Service surveillance program.
None of the agencies could provide a written data retention policy, which would detail how long USPIS could keep the images agents have been collecting from the Golden post office camera and other cameras around the Denver area. Similarly, there does not appear to be a policy regarding in what circumstances other federal agencies may have access to the personal information gathered from the cameras.
Our discovery of this camera program comes just months after the U.S. Postal Service was forced to reveal (during a Congressional hearing) that it was videotaping and storing the address and return information from billions of pieces of mail at its distribution centers.
A federal audit in 2014 found that the Post Office had “insufficient” controls in place when allowing law enforcement agencies access to the data collected from that “mail cover” program.
We did locate a California company which claims it sold the U.S. Postal Service “consumer surveillance systems,” which come installed with wireless data retrieval and infrared night capabilities.
Hop-On Incorporated did not return our repeated calls to elaborate on its self-proclaimed deal. Our FOIA requests for federal contracts and financial information about Hop-On and other contractors who sell USPS and USPIS camera equipment were returned to us void of all information.
dusty simmons I never said you don’t do it if you know a law that allows you to do it please share,,,,,
Isn’t the purpose of a license plate to identify the car? And didn’t we sell our “right” to privacy (no such cons$#%&!@*utional animal if you’re outside your home) to a conservative administration that concocted an open ended Global War On Terror™ for the express purpose of scaring the sheep?
Then WHY did so MANY people get laid off?.. because the federal government didn’t renew their contract and therefore went broke.. they ARE privately run NOW but you guys are missing the HOW and WHY it came to be… trust me, whatever spin you hear about it- millions of people had lost their jobs in order for the service to continue. . YES -they went broke! ..IF they didn’t then I’m suing for wrongful termination as well as about a hundred others just in my area alone, let alone across the country
..there’s just too many in compe$#%&!@*ion. .FedEx. .UPS.. and a million others. .the government wasn’t making a profit and cut the funds. .which was their right, but it was either fold or go private and too many didn’t want to see it completely gone so they picked option B ..because they went broke!
You missed the point entirely….but sure, the internet has desensitized us to information sharing….without a doubt. I understand how my viewpoint must sound absurd and to you, like some conspiracy theory… But if you re-read, I’m not talking about overt totalitarian govt, you nimrod…I’m talking about small gradual changes…police with tanks, cameras on streets….policies that the govt just ease into and say it’s for your protection….as years p$#%&!@*, we’ll just say “well, that’s how its always been” and “im not doing anything wrong, why should I care?” If that laissez faire at$#%&!@*ude becomes the norm, then we begin to teach our children this at$#%&!@*ude….and eventually the critics and the dissenters, that may be the voice of reason, start to sound like madmen…and freedom of speech dissappears because the majority of people feel “i’m not doing anything wrong, so why should I care?” So think again who the “tools” are. And if you’d like to respond…please put some substance in your comment because I will not reply otherwise.
You missed the point entirely….but sure, the internet has desensitized us to information sharing….without a doubt. I understand how my viewpoint must sound absurd and to you, like some conspiracy theory… But if you re-read, I’m not talking about overt totalitarian govt overnight, …I’m talking about small gradual changes…police with tanks, cameras on streets….policies that the govt just ease into and say it’s for your protection….as years p$#%&!@*, we’ll just say “well, that’s how its always been” and “im not doing anything wrong, why should I care?” If that laissez faire at$#%&!@*ude becomes the norm, then we begin to teach our children this at$#%&!@*ude….and eventually the critics and the dissenters, that may be the voice of reason, start to sound like madmen…and freedom of speech dissappears because the majority of people feel “i’m not doing anything wrong, so why should I care?” So think again who the “tools” are. And if you’d like to respond…please put some substance in your comment because I will not reply otherwise.
There was no comparison made, dumb$#%&!@*, but just relating to how people can accept things like $#%&!@* Germany happening in the initial stages. And your use of the word “doff” is utterly stupid. It is never an adjective (like stupid is) but only as a verb, or at most a noun if used from the urban dictionary. And the only people who loved[sic] through it would have to have been the $#%&!@*s themselves and I don’t really give a $#%&!@* what their version of history is. Dumb$#%&!@*.
And by the looks of your one picture within your f**e named FB account, the noun “doff” would perfectly describe you. It’s no wonder you are familiar with it, even though inable to use it correctly, because the boys you hang out with likely refer to you as such. u
And by the looks of your one picture within your f**e name FB account, the urban dictionary noun version of “doff” would perfectly describe you, so it’s no wonder you are familiar with the word, even though unable to use it correctly, because the boys you hang out with no doubt have referred to you as such.
That’s just what they want you to say. Then when they come to your home and walk in. What are you going to say. I have nothing to hide so come on in?