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.
Be on the lookout from now on.
Jason Jackman — politicians do it to us all the time…
Ashley
“IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who spoke these words at an Islamic dinner – “I am one of you.”
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who on ABC News referenced – “My Muslim faith.”
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who gave $100 million in U.S. taxpayer funds to re-build foreign mosques.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who wrote that in the event of a conflict -“I will stand with the Muslims.”
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who assured the Egyptian Foreign Minister that – “I am a Muslim.”
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who bowed in submission before the Saudi King.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who sat for 20 years in a Liberation Theology Church condemning Christianity and professing Marxism.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who exempted Muslims from penalties under Obamacare that the rest of us have to pay.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who purposefully omitted – “endowed by our Creator” – from your recitation of The Declaration Of Independence.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who mocked the Bible and Jesus Christ’s Sermon On The Mount while repeatedly referring to the ‘HOLY’ Quran.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who traveled the Islamic world denigrating the United States Of America.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who instantly threw the support of your administration behind the building of the Ground Zero Victory mosque overlooking the hallowed crater of the World Trade Center.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who refused to attend the National The below provides the basis for virtually everything Obama does Prayer Breakfast, but hastened to host an Islamic prayer breakfast at the WH.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who ordered Georgetown Univ. and Notre Dame to shroud all vestiges of Jesus Christ BEFORE you would agree to go there to speak, but in contrast, you have NEVER requested that the mosques you have visited adjust their decor.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who appointed anti-Christian fanatics to your Czar Corps.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who appointed rabid Islamists to Homeland Security.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who said that NASA’s “foremost mission” was an outreach to Muslim communities.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who as an Illinois Senator was the ONLY individual who would speak in favor of infanticide.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who were the first President not to give a Christmas Greeting from the WH, and went so far as to hang photos of Chairman Mao on the WH tree.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who curtailed the military tribunals of all Islamic terrorists.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who refused to condemn the Ft. Hood killer as an Islamic terrorist.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who has refused to speak-out concerning the horrific executions of women throughout the Muslim culture, but yet, have submitted Arizona to the UN for investigation of hypothetical human-rights abuses.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who when queried in India refused to acknowledge the true extent of radical global Jihadists, and instead profusely praised Islam in a country that is 82% Hindu and the victim of numerous Islamic terrorists assaults.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who funneled $900 Million in U.S. taxpayer dollars to Hamas.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who ordered the USPS to honor the MUSLIM holiday with a new commemorative stamp.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who directed our UK Embassy to conduct outreach to help “empower” the British Muslim community.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who embraced the fanatical Muslim Brotherhood in your quest to overthrow the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who funded mandatory Arabic language and culture studies in Grammar schools across our country.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who follows the Muslim custom of not wearing any form of jewelry during Ramadan.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who departs for Hawaii over the Christmas season so as to avoid past criticism for NOT participating in seasonal WH religious events.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who was uncharacteristically quick to join the chorus of the Muslim Brotherhood to depose Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, formerly America’s strongest ally in North Africa; but, remain muted in your non-response to the Brotherhood led slaughter of Egyptian Christians.
IT WAS YOU, OBAMA who appointed your chief adviser, Valerie Jarrett, an Iranian, who is a member of the Muslim Sisterhood, an off-shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood”.
Unknown author
The same should go for all government employees and officials.
http://www.area1255.blogspot.de/2015/11/understanding-methamphetamines-effects.html
I don’t have anything to hide but my own business. What I do is nobody’s business unless it’s illegal.
1984 come to pass
Should not block access to that fire plug!
Isn’t there an amendment to the Constitution about unreasonable search and seisure of person and papers? This would be an unreasonable search and seizure of personal info