Surveillance in the US
Good article from 404 Media on the cozy surveillance relationship between local Oregon police and ICE:
In the email thread, crime analysts from several local police departments and the FBI introduced themselves to each other and made lists of surveillance tools and tactics they have access to and felt comfortable using, and in some cases offered to perform surveillance for their colleagues in other departments. The thread also includes a member of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and members of Oregon’s State Police. In the thread, called the “Southern Oregon Analyst Group,” some members talked about making fake social media profiles to surveil people, and others discussed being excited to learn and try new surveillance techniques. The emails show both the wide array of surveillance tools that are available to even small police departments in the United States and also shows informal collaboration between local police departments and federal agencies, when ordinarily agencies like ICE are expected to follow their own legal processes for carrying out the surveillance.
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Clive Robinson • June 20, 2025 9:49 AM
@ Bruce, ALL,
With regards,
Don’t make the mistake of only thinking it’s “ICE”.
You do not get “cozy” relationships forming over night, where those involved know that what they are doing is at best questionable, if not very much unlawful.
Dig a little further and you will no doubt find other “cozy” relationships.
As an outsider to the US looking in, you can see the signs and symptoms of a system that has become corrupt to the core.
Where “results at any cost” as long as it’s not your own, is the name of the game. From the most senior of politicians all the way down to the “nose pickers on the line”. They all know what side of the line gives promotion and bonuses of various forms.
Failure to stay on that side of the line, leaves you naked and alone, thus vulnerable to not just the street criminals but also those riding around in the “black and whites”.
In the UK the Met Police have had countless scandals that get excused even when guilt is absolutely clear.
We’ve talked about some of them in the past here on this blog, but rampant abuse of position is seen as a perk of the job by all to many “nod and a wink Coppers”.