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InvisibleJim
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Registered: 04/07/04
Posts: 20,922
Police used high-tech surveillance at festival
    #6067852 - 09/16/06 02:10 PM (17 years, 6 months ago)

link

Police used high-tech surveillance at festival

Hidden cameras helped in drug busts

By Eric Weslander (Contact)

Friday, September 15, 2006


Hidden, high-dollar equipment helped police crack down on drug dealing at this year’s Wakarusa Festival.

A new article in a trade journal, Government Security News, describes the roughly $250,000 worth of hidden-camera, night-vision and thermal-imaging equipment used by police throughout the festival grounds. The equipment was courtesy of a California company that agreed to give a free demonstration of its wares for marketing purposes.

The company estimated that they were able to cover 85 percent of the festival grounds with about a half dozen hidden cameras. One camera, for example, was mounted atop a light tower and used on “Shakedown Street,” a bustling area viewed as a problem spot for drug dealing.

“It’s hopefully a win-win for everybody except the crooks,” said Mike McRory, vice president of business development for NS Microwave Inc., of Spring Valley, Calif., which markets security and surveillance equipment and is owned by the defense contractor Allied Defense Group.

The company builds “covert” cameras disguised as everything from electrical boxes to birdhouses. They’re capable of seeing at night as long as there’s some ambient light nearby such as a lantern or fire.

‘Nobody knew’

Four of its cameras were “consistently deployed” throughout the festival, and at least two others were there to be used as needed, according to the company. The cameras were controlled by a computerized command center in a 21-foot trailer that was parked atop a hill in the middle of a Frisbee golf course inside the park.

“Nobody knew,” said Kevin Danciak, the company’s Midwestern sales representative. “It just looked like parabolic dishes on top of a trailer.”

The plan to use the cameras came about when Danciak ran into Clinton State Park manager Jerry Schecher at a Kansas narcotics officers’ meeting early this year or late last year. Danciak was there to promote his equipment. Schecher was looking for answers to growing concerns about drug dealing at the festival, which was heading into its third year and was growing in popularity.

Had there not been a strong move this year by law enforcement to control the situation, Schecher said, the state would not have allowed the festival to continue.

“This is a crowd that has a high expectation of privacy and freedom, and I respect that, within limits,” Schecher said. “I struggled with this a little bit, but I felt like we were doing it for the right reasons. If it was meant to be Big Brother and spying on people, I wouldn’t have done it.”

One festivalgoer said the hidden cameras were “a shame and kind of embarrassing.

“I feel like it was really a big mistake because people at a festival are trying to have a good time and let loose. I would be willing to bet that most people wouldn’t be OK with that had they known,” Ali Mangan said.

She said law enforcement should have at leased publicized the hidden cameras. The surveillance was conducted at the expense of the privacy of people not selling drugs, Mangan said.

Safer means

The main things the cameras captured, Danciak said, were hand-to-hand drug transactions and drug use. After zooming into an area where drug sales were happening, police could then send an officer in to make an undercover buy that was caught on camera.

“We could see if there was a problem and then address it rather than just having to focus all of our foot patrols or enforcement in that area all of the time,” Schecher said.

Danciak said the result was a safer way of busting drug deals.

“No fighting, no running, no guns drawn, nothing,” he said. “It was just, ‘You pop around the corner, you’re there, you identify yourself and you see people just deflate.’”

He declined comment on whether the cameras covered the festival stage areas or campground areas outside the festival.

At least a month before the festival began, Schecher said, promoter Brett Mosiman was notified of the plan for security cameras. Mosiman did not return phone calls Thursday seeking comment.

The cameras’ presence was not publicized in the Lawrence area before or after the festival.

The article in Government Security News said the images produced were so good that some alleged dealers entered pleas based on the strength of that evidence. But Dist. Atty. Charles Branson, whose office is charged with prosecuting the cases, said he did not know of any cases in which that happened.

Many of those arrested at the festival were allowed to plead to lower charges in a massive docket call a few days after the hearing.

Police seized more than $11,000 in suspected drug money, but some of that came outside the festival grounds in a Kansas Highway Patrol checkpoint.

Lt. Kari Wempe, of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, the lead agency at the festival, said the camera system worked well.

“It gave a good overall aerial view of the grounds, which we would not have had otherwise,” she said.

But so far, she said, the sheriff has no plans to buy any of the company’s equipment. Schecher said he would like to use a similar system at the park in the future, perhaps for catching people who try to break into pay stations, but not necessarily for next year’s festival.

“Kevin has nice toys, but they’re expensive,” he said.

— Staff writer George Diepenbrock contributed to this story.


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Use the Fucking Reply To Feature You Lazy Pieces of Shit!

afoaf said:
Jim, if you were in my city, I would let you fuck my wife.

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InvisibleZippoZM
Knomadic
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Registered: 06/17/03
Posts: 13,227
Loc: Pongyang, North Korea
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: Jim]
    #6067886 - 09/16/06 02:19 PM (17 years, 6 months ago)

whoever threw that festival should be shot for allowing the police to do this.


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PEACE

:mushroom2:zippoz:mushroom2:



"in times of widespread chaos and confusion, it has been the duty of more advanced human beings - artists, scientists, clowns, and philosophers - to create order. In such times as ours however, when there is too much order, too much m management, too much programming and control, it becomes the duty of superior men and women and women to fling their favorite monkey wrenches into the machinery. To relieve the repression of the human spirit, they must sow doubt and disruption"

"People do it every day, they talk to themselves ... they see themselves as they'd like to be, they don't have the courage you have, to just run with it."

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InvisibleJim
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Registered: 04/07/04
Posts: 20,922
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: ZippoZ]
    #6067899 - 09/16/06 02:22 PM (17 years, 6 months ago)

get this:

Quote:

If you witnessed or experienced an action during this year's festival that you feel was inappropriate, please allow Wakarusa to investigate the matter by completing an Incident Report form. The form can be found by clicking on the "Incident Report" link at the top of the homepage or by pasting the following link into your web browser http://www.wakarusa.com/2006/incident_report.asp Thank you and we're very sorry for any inconveniences you may have experienced during the festival.




from the wakarusa website...


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Use the Fucking Reply To Feature You Lazy Pieces of Shit!

afoaf said:
Jim, if you were in my city, I would let you fuck my wife.

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InvisibleOneMoreRobot3021
Male

Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 61,026
Loc: the sky
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: Jim]
    #6067921 - 09/16/06 02:30 PM (17 years, 6 months ago)

You should report that article as an inappropriate incident.


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Acid doesn't give you truths; it builds machines that push the envelope of perception. Whatever revelations came to me then have dissolved like skywriting. All I really know is that those few years saddled me with a faith in the redemptive potential of the imagination which, however flat, stale and unprofitable the world seems to me now, I cannot for the life of me shake.

-Erik Davis

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InvisibleFunkyLoFi
Existing

Registered: 07/18/05
Posts: 1,542
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: Jim]
    #6067922 - 09/16/06 02:31 PM (17 years, 6 months ago)

:nonono:  That is some serious bullshit.


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All the people you knew were the actors

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Offlinerawtoxic
Stranger
Registered: 10/06/02
Posts: 2,097
Loc: smokey mountains
Last seen: 13 years, 7 months
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: FunkyLoFi]
    #6068059 - 09/16/06 03:29 PM (17 years, 6 months ago)

Travelling to Kansas to see a festival full of overzealous law enforcement handing out felonies like baseball cards just became a worse idea.

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Invisibledemiu5
humans, lol
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Registered: 08/18/05
Posts: 43,948
Loc: the popcorn stadium Flag
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: Jim]
    #6068345 - 09/16/06 05:07 PM (17 years, 6 months ago)

Quote:

The main things the cameras captured, Danciak said, were hand-to-hand drug transactions and drug use. After zooming into an area where drug sales were happening, police could then send an officer in to make an undercover buy that was caught on camera.




Ok...so, instead of just taking the drugs from them and allowing them to "enjoy" the rest of the fest., they went ahead and busted them, for dealing on top of that as opposed to just possession.

Goddamn!


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channel your inner Larry David

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OfflineBlindLemon
waves
Male

Registered: 04/20/06
Posts: 628
Loc: so cal
Last seen: 10 years, 9 months
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: demiu5]
    #6068441 - 09/16/06 05:41 PM (17 years, 6 months ago)

Fuck thoes ass holes...


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Im a fucking spiral..

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InvisibleDNKYD
Turtle!

Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: Jim]
    #6068747 - 09/16/06 07:54 PM (17 years, 6 months ago)

WHY CAN'T YOU PEOPLE ALLOW US TO HAVE A GOOD TIME IN A SAFE ENVIRONMENT?!

Every LEO that was involved in this act of war on drug users deserves a short drop and a sudden stop. And I'm serious.

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Offlineyageman
already dead
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Registered: 01/26/06
Posts: 4,965
Last seen: 14 years, 11 months
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: BlindLemon]
    #6068806 - 09/16/06 08:19 PM (17 years, 6 months ago)

I just wrote a rather long post


Id rather leave it at----->......................................


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[quote]Me_Roy said:
You moron. Material is material is material.  No 'thing' fixes any situation.  If anything were so simple we would be living in a much better world.[/quote] <-----the dumbest thing I have ever read in my life.
Thanks shroomery.

Edited by yageman (09/16/06 08:26 PM)

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InvisibleJim
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Registered: 04/07/04
Posts: 20,922
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
    #6069179 - 09/16/06 10:36 PM (17 years, 6 months ago)

the thing that pisses me off the most is the promoters will take our money knowing what we plan on doing...


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Use the Fucking Reply To Feature You Lazy Pieces of Shit!

afoaf said:
Jim, if you were in my city, I would let you fuck my wife.

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Offlinenightkrawler
explorer
Male

Registered: 06/18/04
Posts: 2,980
Loc: new england
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Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: Jim]
    #6069584 - 09/17/06 12:36 AM (17 years, 6 months ago)

:thumbdown:


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Not all who wander are lost - J.R.R. Tolkien

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Offlinewhatsthestorymg
badwithgrains

Registered: 07/23/06
Posts: 123
Last seen: 17 years, 25 days
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: nightkrawler]
    #6070004 - 09/17/06 05:24 AM (17 years, 6 months ago)

err.. can't do anything without being watched. That pisses me off almost as much as those new interceptor police cars. They used to have exempt plates but now they've switched them to standard plates. The only way you can differentiate them is that they still have the spotlights on them. Err, fucking police.


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I pity the fool who don't enjoy a good cubie :mushroom2: :mrt: :mushroom2:
I pity the fool who don't enjoy a good van eyck  :mrt:

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Cattle Prod of Loving Kindness

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OfflineKodos
I come in thespirit ofhostility
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Registered: 12/24/04
Posts: 156
Loc: Rigel VII
Last seen: 3 years, 5 months
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: whatsthestorymg]
    #6070054 - 09/17/06 07:16 AM (17 years, 6 months ago)

defeintely spread this info to anyone who goes to fests. that place is gonna be hurting next year (if it even happens) after the car checks on the highway, but after this shit hopefully it will be fucking empty. let the promoters go broke for doing that shit to us.

if he was really really down he would have announced what he was going to be forced to endure with the cameras and cancelled it when he found out the month before, sure it would be a financial blow but he would have saved tonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnns of respect for himself by everyone who goes to these events.

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InvisibleGratos
Just thinkin anddrinkin
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Registered: 08/21/05
Posts: 1,374
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: Kodos]
    #6070061 - 09/17/06 07:37 AM (17 years, 6 months ago)

Yeah, spread the word and dont goto the celebrations you dont want to support. The police are gunna do what their gunna do, theres nothing that can stop that. Being betrayed by our supposed own is a different story though, that guy needs about a 1mg dose of LSD.

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Offline76degrees
Apprentice

Registered: 06/08/06
Posts: 350
Loc: Middle Earth
Last seen: 17 years, 5 months
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: Gratos]
    #6070303 - 09/17/06 10:26 AM (17 years, 6 months ago)

Looks like the festival should have a lawsuit on their hands for not publicizing the cameras. I think that's a serious invasion on people's right to privacy. I bet the festival will fail have a respectable attendance next year. That, or people will get their drugs ahead of time and do them before they come in or do them in the bathrooms after they've smuggled them in. When cops get sneaky so will the people. Hidden cameras are no solution IMO.


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The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.

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OfflineExplosiveMango
HallucinogenusDigitallus
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Registered: 07/12/05
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Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: 76degrees]
    #6070342 - 09/17/06 10:39 AM (17 years, 6 months ago)

*policeman pops around corner and identifies himself, startling crack dealer*

*crack dealer shoots policeman in the head*

G'job big brother, keep taking away that freedom in exchange for justice!

...


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Know your self.
Know your substance.
Know your source.

The most distorted perspective possible is the perspective that yours is not distorted.

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Offlinebongoboy2000
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Registered: 02/07/04
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Loc: Seattle
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Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: ExplosiveMango]
    #6071982 - 09/17/06 08:04 PM (17 years, 6 months ago)

I've never heard of this festival. Is it similar to Bonnaroo? Could this ever happen there? there aren't even enough police cars in the world to carry all the drugs they'd confiscate there!


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...I got nothin..

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InvisibleDNKYD
Turtle!

Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: Jim]
    #6080337 - 09/19/06 09:34 PM (17 years, 6 months ago)

Here's an e-mail response I received after filling out the incident report on their website. I didn't attend this festival and you can bet your ass I won't be attending in the future:

Quote:


As many of you know, there were law enforcement and accompanying security issues at this year's event. Some of these issues continue to make headlines, and regrettably, create controversy. As organizers of the festival, it is very disappointing that these issues have taken away from what otherwise has been a highly praised and truly special event. We cannot tell you how truly sorry we are that these issues occurred at Wakarusa this year and we sincerely apologize to everyone for any violations of your rights and privacy.

To give you some background, we were informed that there would be an increased law enforcement presence at this year's event. Initially, we were supportive of this when it was presented as an effort to increase the safety of everyone in attendance. It became apparent however that enforcement, not safety and security, was the true mission of the increased law enforcement.
We must make it perfectly clear that we did not know of any of the specific measures, tactics or instruments the various law enforcement agencies used at the event. More importantly, Wakarusa does not believe such tactics and equipment were necessary and does not support their use.

If there are not significant assurances that similar procedures won't materialize in the future, we will not host another Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival. There is simply no justification for these types of tactics to be used on an otherwise courteous and peaceful crowd. These actions are not what Wakarusa is about. Wakarusa has always took pride in being a fan friendly event - we like to say, "a festival for music fans by music fans" and we mean it to our core. Wakarusa is a special event hosted in a very special setting and we do appreciate the vision of those local officials who allow Wakarusa to exist and to flourish. The festival has also benefited dozens of charities and not for profit groups. In the future, we hope to expand our mission of supporting great endeavors such as environmental causes, sustainable living models, and music education. In essence, this is an event that deserves everyone's respect and support.

We are searching for moral, political and legal support to help us resolve the issues we all faced this year. As before, we will continue to listen to your concerns and work with the authorities to make Wakarusa an event we all can be proud of. Our annual mission is to make Wakarusa one of the best, safest and most enjoyable events in the country. We sincerely appreciate your loyal support during the past three years and we hope we can maintain your trust and respect as we work through our growing pains.

Thank you for your support,

Brett Mosiman




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OfflineCantiSama

Registered: 10/21/04
Posts: 794
Last seen: 6 months, 7 days
Re: Police used high-tech surveillance at festival [Re: DNKYD]
    #6080610 - 09/19/06 10:26 PM (17 years, 6 months ago)

I went to the Austin City Limits festival this past weekend, and at least Austin pigs aren't so bad. i saw no busts and i couldn't go 10 feet without smelling some burning reefer. Usually they are pretty damn cool at festivals, here. I went to the Marley fest and the High Times party last year, no problems. Some locals just have too much money and too many squares.


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Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand.

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