[IP] Police at Logan Airport to Use BlackBerrys to Screen Passengers
Begin forwarded message:
From: Jonathan Spira <jspira@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 22, 2004 10:19:20 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Police at Logan Airport to Use BlackBerrys to Screen Passengers
Presented without comment.
/s/ Jonathan
Jonathan B. Spira
CEO and Chief Analyst
Basex, Inc.
8 http://www.basex.com
Wall Street Journal
Police at Logan Airport to Use
BlackBerrys to Screen Passengers
By WILLIAM M. BULKELEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 22, 2004; Page D5
BOSTON -- Massachusetts state police at Logan Airport are being given
hand-held devices with access to vast databases of personal information
to use in screening for terrorists.
The new plan, now in its early stages of implementation, is designed to
make the traveling public safer. Some critics say it is yet another
potential invasion of privacy in public places.
Some of the troopers who regularly patrol the airport will be equipped
with BlackBerrys linked to a repository of databases run by LocatePlus
Holdings Corp., of Beverly, Mass. Others will get mobile iPaq hand-held
devices made by Hewlett-Packard Co., which offer direct access to
National Crime Information Center data about arrest records and
terrorism watch lists.
Boston's Logan Airport is highly security conscious because it was the
origin of the two Sept. 11, 2001, flights that hit the World Trade
Center.
Quick access to the database will allow police to "either confirm or
dispute someone's identity information a lot more quickly" than calling
in for information over a patrol radio, said Lt. Thomas Coffey of the
state police.
But civil libertarians criticized the move, saying it will let police
learn personal details even when people aren't under arrest.
Barry Steinhardt, director of technology and liberty for the American
Civil Liberties Union, said, "It's very troubling. It turns every
passenger into a suspect." He said he expects the ACLU will press the
state police at Logan to detail what criteria they use to query
passengers or run checks. He also said that even databases of the
National Crime Information Center have inaccuracies, which could lead
to the arrest of innocent people.
The hand-held BlackBerry device, made by Research In Motion Ltd.,
Waterloo, Ontario, lets users read and reply to e-mail wherever they
are. The Logan police will be using a $99-a-month service that also
lets them do data searches.
The database can also be used to find car owners based on their license
plate numbers. Jon Latorella, president of LocatePlus, a tiny, publicly
held firm started in 1994, said much of the data is compiled from
public records.
Massachusetts state police, as well as thousands of other
law-enforcement agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
use LocatePlus either over the Internet or by purchasing CD-ROMs, Mr.
Latorella said.
Write to William M. Bulkeley at bill.bulkeley@xxxxxxx
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