Surveillance cameras are a budget sinkhole that absorbs manpower for monitoring and review, often resulting in very few crimes solved and usually only unimportant ones at that. Recently a murder in Philadelphia was solved by revealing an exterminator passing by the murder scene both before and after the murder.
Now Philadelphia want to have merchants register all surveillance cameras so that their video feeds can be automatically checked by the police if a nearby incident is reported.
Showing posts with label Police Response. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Police Response. Show all posts
Monday, February 4, 2013
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Death of Gareth Williams: MI 6 Agent
Once again, I visit the death of an MI6 agent and note certain disquieting facts.
Despite all attempts by the various intelligence agencies involved to portray him as a nerdy technician rather than field agent, it is clear that he had been trained for operations and, in fact, had been conducting field operations.
As someone tasked to any field assignment it is necessary to have a cover story and as all good cover stories go, it is sensible to have depth and breadth to them so that any character appears to have a variety of interests and activities and does not appear to be one-dimensional and therefore a suspected mole. Those who look for moles or intruders are apt to be impressed by discoveries of non-mainstream interests. The famed "cover story within a cover story" is far more believable than a shallow, single-dimensional cover story that is easily blown.
To what extent the decedent's visitations to cross-dressing sites, auto-eroticism sites, bondage sites, etc. represented an actual interest versus a career-motivated affectation is unknown and to a great extent unknowable.
It is true that twenty thousand pounds is a rather substantial investment in ladies undergarments but it is also clear that a one time purchase of such items is more suggestive of a cover story than an ongoing interest persisting over the course of many years.
Exploration of a variety of extreme websites is a very sensible way to build a complex cover story for later adventures in the world of Hackers. Hackers who discover one of their number has various cross-dressing interests and auto-eroticism interests would be less likely to view him as a possible government agent sent to penetrate their network.
As in any forensic investigation, it is often impossible to exclude an option it is only possible to term it unlikely. People often have extreme skills or unusual knowledge: regurgitated keys, cat burglar climbing skills, lock picking skills, contortionist routines, etc. all come to mind as items frequently possessed by the general population and therefore unable to be rejected by a coroner.
A person who wished to advance his career by becoming accepted in the world of auto-eroticism and cross dressing may well have applied himself to some fairly interesting situations. Not only is the self entry into the holdall physically possible but there is a measure of evidence to indicate that self entry into the holdall may have been a particularly valuable career skill for him to acquire as it transcends the world of auto eroticism and extends to ordinary burglary skills.
It is impossible for a coroner to rule that self entry into the holdall did not take place. We may find comfort in the fact that we ourselves would never attempt such a thing and that if we were indeed to attempt such a dangerous contortion we would do so under conditions of greater safety, but such thoughts are of no use to the coroner. We can think the intelligence services played a role and that forensic evidence was tampered with. It is a comfort to us to think that but a coronial inquiry is not an exercise in intellectual comfort.
Would the appropriate coroner's verdict be Death by misadventure? No. Death by patriotism seems much more appropriate.
Please note that the coroner is of the opinion that the visitations to the alternative lifestyle sites were brief and sporadic and therefore should be given little weight. I accord the sites greater weight due to the assumed goal in such visitations to the alternative sites. Everything is strange about the case. Even the initially much sought after and now discounted Mediterranean Couple has ties to the Italian embassy so the intrigue seems to never stop.
Despite all attempts by the various intelligence agencies involved to portray him as a nerdy technician rather than field agent, it is clear that he had been trained for operations and, in fact, had been conducting field operations.
As someone tasked to any field assignment it is necessary to have a cover story and as all good cover stories go, it is sensible to have depth and breadth to them so that any character appears to have a variety of interests and activities and does not appear to be one-dimensional and therefore a suspected mole. Those who look for moles or intruders are apt to be impressed by discoveries of non-mainstream interests. The famed "cover story within a cover story" is far more believable than a shallow, single-dimensional cover story that is easily blown.
To what extent the decedent's visitations to cross-dressing sites, auto-eroticism sites, bondage sites, etc. represented an actual interest versus a career-motivated affectation is unknown and to a great extent unknowable.
It is true that twenty thousand pounds is a rather substantial investment in ladies undergarments but it is also clear that a one time purchase of such items is more suggestive of a cover story than an ongoing interest persisting over the course of many years.
Exploration of a variety of extreme websites is a very sensible way to build a complex cover story for later adventures in the world of Hackers. Hackers who discover one of their number has various cross-dressing interests and auto-eroticism interests would be less likely to view him as a possible government agent sent to penetrate their network.
As in any forensic investigation, it is often impossible to exclude an option it is only possible to term it unlikely. People often have extreme skills or unusual knowledge: regurgitated keys, cat burglar climbing skills, lock picking skills, contortionist routines, etc. all come to mind as items frequently possessed by the general population and therefore unable to be rejected by a coroner.
A person who wished to advance his career by becoming accepted in the world of auto-eroticism and cross dressing may well have applied himself to some fairly interesting situations. Not only is the self entry into the holdall physically possible but there is a measure of evidence to indicate that self entry into the holdall may have been a particularly valuable career skill for him to acquire as it transcends the world of auto eroticism and extends to ordinary burglary skills.
It is impossible for a coroner to rule that self entry into the holdall did not take place. We may find comfort in the fact that we ourselves would never attempt such a thing and that if we were indeed to attempt such a dangerous contortion we would do so under conditions of greater safety, but such thoughts are of no use to the coroner. We can think the intelligence services played a role and that forensic evidence was tampered with. It is a comfort to us to think that but a coronial inquiry is not an exercise in intellectual comfort.
Would the appropriate coroner's verdict be Death by misadventure? No. Death by patriotism seems much more appropriate.
Please note that the coroner is of the opinion that the visitations to the alternative lifestyle sites were brief and sporadic and therefore should be given little weight. I accord the sites greater weight due to the assumed goal in such visitations to the alternative sites. Everything is strange about the case. Even the initially much sought after and now discounted Mediterranean Couple has ties to the Italian embassy so the intrigue seems to never stop.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Jo Yeates Murder Case. Trial evidence.
This was a strange case. A very young and attractive female whose movements were confined to a narrow time frame and a geographically limited area containing intensive surveillance camera coverage. Although some items became of particular interest only after the initial reports it appears that the Avon and Somerset Constabulary made some very significant errors early on in the case.
The boyfriend who returned from his out-of-town family visit reported what was essentially a missing persons case but which clearly had overtones of missing under highly unusual circumstances indicative of violence since she was missing from her apartment yet her coat and cell phone were in the living room indicating at the very least an abrupt departure and most likely indicating an involuntary departure.
It seems that the police made two crucial errors. They did not empty the trash bins in the immediate area and thus failed to discover a pizza box that was in the killer's trash bin. It was sometime after the crime was reported that surveillance film revealed her purchasing the pizza. It also seems that the police concluded virtually immediately that the apartment was too neat to have been the scene of a violent struggle. Later evidence indicated a series of screams and the sound of a brief struggle took place promptly after her entry into her home and the presumed inadvertent discovery of her next door neighbor's presence in her apartment.
In any situation such as this any situation involving a hasty departure is to be explored. A neighbor stopping over for a moment, a knock on the door that is a ruse, or anything else wherein the missing woman's evening is suddenly interrupted by a person who is known to her and perceived as non-threatening. Similarly, any telephone message or answering machine message or notepad in the area is normally explored for any indication of a reason why she might have made an abrupt departure from home but left behind her cell phone and coat on a cold night.
All manner of garbage bins inside the home and in the general area would normally be investigated. Weapons, clothing, blood, anything someone had an urgent need to dispose of may at trial become crucial evidence. These are customary steps and hardly need explaining.
As yet unreported in the press, the ability of the Dutch engineer to enter via a common door in a refurbished wall is of unknown ease and the presence of that door is unknown to someone viewing the wall from the victim's flat.
The victim's landlord who was briefly of interest in the case mainly due to his eccentric reputation will be giving evidence in the separate phone hacking inquiry.
ADDENDUM: So far the trial has been the usual cowardly stance of She let me in, I misinterpreted her signals and never having had any intent to rape or kill simply panicked and tried to keep her quiet thus making it manslaughter not murder. Of course after this sudden panic he quietly ate a pizza and disposed of her corpse.
I do so hope the jury sees through all that utter nonsense and makes it premeditated murder with malice aforethought.
It seems that 10 out of the 12 jurors did see it as premeditated murder. The sentence is life with a mandatory 20 years in custody.
As is often the case, there was a post-conviction revelation of the defendant having had dozens of images of women being strangled on his computer.
The boyfriend who returned from his out-of-town family visit reported what was essentially a missing persons case but which clearly had overtones of missing under highly unusual circumstances indicative of violence since she was missing from her apartment yet her coat and cell phone were in the living room indicating at the very least an abrupt departure and most likely indicating an involuntary departure.
It seems that the police made two crucial errors. They did not empty the trash bins in the immediate area and thus failed to discover a pizza box that was in the killer's trash bin. It was sometime after the crime was reported that surveillance film revealed her purchasing the pizza. It also seems that the police concluded virtually immediately that the apartment was too neat to have been the scene of a violent struggle. Later evidence indicated a series of screams and the sound of a brief struggle took place promptly after her entry into her home and the presumed inadvertent discovery of her next door neighbor's presence in her apartment.
In any situation such as this any situation involving a hasty departure is to be explored. A neighbor stopping over for a moment, a knock on the door that is a ruse, or anything else wherein the missing woman's evening is suddenly interrupted by a person who is known to her and perceived as non-threatening. Similarly, any telephone message or answering machine message or notepad in the area is normally explored for any indication of a reason why she might have made an abrupt departure from home but left behind her cell phone and coat on a cold night.
All manner of garbage bins inside the home and in the general area would normally be investigated. Weapons, clothing, blood, anything someone had an urgent need to dispose of may at trial become crucial evidence. These are customary steps and hardly need explaining.
As yet unreported in the press, the ability of the Dutch engineer to enter via a common door in a refurbished wall is of unknown ease and the presence of that door is unknown to someone viewing the wall from the victim's flat.
The victim's landlord who was briefly of interest in the case mainly due to his eccentric reputation will be giving evidence in the separate phone hacking inquiry.
ADDENDUM: So far the trial has been the usual cowardly stance of She let me in, I misinterpreted her signals and never having had any intent to rape or kill simply panicked and tried to keep her quiet thus making it manslaughter not murder. Of course after this sudden panic he quietly ate a pizza and disposed of her corpse.
I do so hope the jury sees through all that utter nonsense and makes it premeditated murder with malice aforethought.
It seems that 10 out of the 12 jurors did see it as premeditated murder. The sentence is life with a mandatory 20 years in custody.
As is often the case, there was a post-conviction revelation of the defendant having had dozens of images of women being strangled on his computer.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
When gadgets betray us?
A New Zealand chain of no-frills supermarkets had its computer turn on the lights and unlock the doors of one of its stores at the normal opening time of 8:00am on Good Friday, a holiday on which there were no employees present. Apparently someone called the police at 9:20am reporting that truckloads of groceries were being removed but several shoppers simply went to the self-scan checkout lane and proceeded in a normal fashion until one shopper happened to scan alcohol and the scanner automatically stopped functioning while it awaited managerial confirmation of the purchaser's age. It appears that some shoppers who entered the store simply left when they realized something was amiss. Apparently there were those who took advantage of the situation though and prompted the calls to the police. Police in New Zealand are of course not armed but had no trouble dealing with the situation and the store's manager intends to take no action during a period of time in which he trusts the various shoppers will voluntarily do the right thing by coming in and paying for their groceries now that the store is open and properly staffed.
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