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.
Read this form. This is the form I have to fill out to keep my license plate information confidential. If you don’t fill it out anyone can get your license plate information. Also read the court cases involving the license plate readers. They have been ruled cons$#%&!@*utional BECAUSE license info is public information just like your address.
http://www.ok.gov/able/do$#%&!@*ents/M27.pdf
Here is a link to a the addresses attached to current oklahoma licenses maybe you’ll find yours on there Kevin.
Dumb$#%&!@*es.
It sucks when you thought you knew something, then acted like a jack$#%&!@* while proclaiming your false belief then being proven wrong.
This is common knowledge kids. There has been a huge uproar in recent years because of the amount of info about people on the Internet and the reason it hasn’t been removed is because just about everything about everyone, except social security numbers, is public info. You can easily find my address. Come on by.
http://www.vehiclerecordsregistry.com/License_Plate.php?type=License%20Plate
Read the first sentence of the blue paragraph.
Do I need to go on? Or do you get that you don’t know what you’re talking about?
The reason a cop won’t tell you is because we are all so lawsuit conscious. I am not going to give you information on a license, (even though I can legally) then you go to the guys house and kick his $#%&!@* for running into your car and leaving. None of will do that. You go through the proper channels and you can get their name, address, and probably job address through the department of revenue, who runs license info at least in missouri.
If you people didn’t know all this $#%&!@*, including your mortgage information, was public then you’re in for a rude awakening.
I don’t expect any replies from the three idiots who tried to argue but know this: you’re not as smart as you think you are! So use a little better discourse when discussing something, you won’t look as stupid when you’re proven wrong.
Also when I take an accident report on a hit and run and you get a license number that Info will be in the report when you get it for insurance purposes. Surely we can’t do that if license plate info is confidential right?
Also if you’re involved in a fender bender and you don’t call the police you’re required to give your license plate number and insurance to the other driver. Why would we make you give some confidential info to another citizen?
I didn’t think here would be enough integrity for any of you to say “I was wrong”
Crickets……crickets.
I guess Derek can’t read. We found a hidden camera in our work area – totally illegal. It’s not paranoia because it was true idiot.
This is worthy of what? Useless info
The VA does have problems accomplishing things so that’s probably where it stemmed from. Was it watching you pee?
Morons