We’ve gotten pretty good at collecting all sorts of data from cameras and other sensors – but in the end, it is what we do with the information that counts. Surveillance technologies provide the capability to capture the minutest details, but the real value in collecting information is in its analysis. While technology allows us to observe behaviors that predict criminal intent and can interdict before events occur, often this data is subverted by security professionals and law enforcement misinterpretation based on spurious factors.
Recently the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it would be releasing new regulations concerning the use of “profiling” by law enforcement officials and agencies. Based on media interpretation and a misunderstanding of this announcement, one element of the announcement grabbed the headlines – that the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) would be exempted from the new regulations on the use of profiling. This media interpretation immediately elicited the expected outcry from civil libertarians concerned with the misuse of profiling as a surveillance and policing technique.