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InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
Cops find drugs in Google Earth
    #7418359 - 09/16/07 10:52 PM (16 years, 4 months ago)

How the police use Google Earth
September 14, 2007 - USA Today

When a Wisconsin man was arrested last October on suspicion of harvesting 18 pounds of marijuana, it was partly thanks to Google Earth.

The sheriff's deputies who pulled the man over found, in addition to what they estimated was at least $63,000 worth of pot, a GPS unit around his neck that was filled with a series of local coordinates, according to The Journal Times of Racine, Wis. After plugging those coordinates into Google Earth, the police were able to identify the location of several marijuana fields to which the man was allegedly connected.

While the cops would have been able to find the fields strictly based on the GPS coordinates, their use of Google Earth demonstrated just one way in which law enforcement agencies across the country and around the world are using the popular mapping service, both to fight crime and also to offer valuable information to the public.

It's impossible to say just how many law enforcement agencies are actively using Google Earth, but one thing is certain: looking at Google's often detailed images is a lot cheaper than flying helicopters or planes, particularly in remote areas with cash-strapped police departments.

Todd Fulton, a deputy in the Humboldt, Calif. sheriff's department, said his agency is also using Google Earth as one piece in its marijuana interdiction activities, albeit a small one. "We'll use GPS (devices) and transfer the GPS data over to Google Earth," Fulton said, "to get an idea of the terrain we're dealing with."

That's particularly useful in a region like Humboldt County — one of the largest marijuana growing regions in the United States — given that it consists of millions of acres of rough, hilly terrain. So being able to use Google Earth to do something that previously might have required flying around in a helicopter is much more efficient, Fulton suggested.

Of course, given the realities of Google Earth, it's unlikely that law enforcement would ever be able to use the service as the sole means of interdiction, despite the high degree of visibility it gives them.

One Northern California marijuana grower contacted for this story said that using Google Earth, he is able to see the exact location on his property where his plants are growing. But he's not worried that the police will be raiding his land any time soon.

"You would have to be really well-versed in the whats and wherefores," the grower said, "to be able to identify my (growing operation). My game is really well obscured."

Chuck Herring, director of communications for satellite data provider DigitalGlobe, said he thinks that the quality of the imagery his company offers, and that of Google Earth is good enough to spot things like large marijuana fields.

But the bigger problem, according to Herring, and to Frank Taylor, who runs the unofficial Google Earth blog, is that the images from the mapping service are not timely enough for police to use for law enforcement activity.

"I think it's useful, but there are some caveats," said Taylor. "The satellite photography in Google Earth is not live. It's not even recent. In most cases, it varies widely from as recent as a few months old to a few years old."

Taylor said some law enforcement agencies have access to the enterprise version of Google Earth, which may have more recent photography.Still, it's not likely that even that data would help police nab pot growers in the act.

Beyond pot busts

But several agencies have found other ways to utilize the service, both for law enforcement and for public service. He explained that there have been multiple cases of tax authorities using Google Earth to crack down on homeowners who have built additions to their property, but who are not paying taxes on that new construction, Taylor said.

They've "begun using Google Earth imagery to help identify property builder violations where (people have) added onto their houses without reporting it," said Taylor, "and they've been using that to get them to pay tax penalties." Authorities can compare the satellite imagery to existing records and see where additions have been made illegally.

A more public service-oriented utilization of Google Earth by law enforcement is one undertaken by the Ohio state highway patrol. For two years now, that agency has been providing Google Earth data showing the locations of fatal accidents — including those identified as being alcohol-related. The agency is also providing data showing the locations with the highest frequency of drunk-driving arrests.

Using that data, it's possible to get a sense of dangerous roads or intersections, including those drunk drivers are more likely to be on, Taylor said. "You can see where more drunk drivers have been found," said Taylor. "Those are places you might want to avoid on a Saturday night."

At the same time, some Google Earth users have found a way to use the service that law enforcement probably wishes they weren't. One database shows the location of hundreds of speed cameras — those used by police to automatically catch people speeding — all over Western Europe.

"It's one of the most popular (plug-ins) in all of Europe," Taylor said. "I can't imagine why."


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Offlinemoon_glue
Orwell's Post9/11 Era
Male


Registered: 01/20/07
Posts: 2,264
Loc: Earth, today...
Last seen: 8 years, 10 months
Re: Cops find drugs in Google Earth [Re: veggie]
    #7419007 - 09/17/07 08:01 AM (16 years, 4 months ago)

lol if cops are utilizing google, they've outlived their usefulness. pay a highschool kid minumum wage, and he could probably get it done alot faster in the three hours he works part time after school.


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OfflineThePeruvianTorch
Cactidude
Registered: 09/11/05
Posts: 310
Last seen: 13 years, 8 months
Re: Cops find drugs in Google Earth [Re: moon_glue]
    #7419439 - 09/17/07 11:39 AM (16 years, 4 months ago)

wow that was right by me. I remember that, it was a while ago. crazy.


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InvisibleHelp on the Way
Slipknot420

Registered: 08/12/00
Posts: 2,893
Loc: Another World
Re: Cops find drugs in Google Earth [Re: ThePeruvianTorch]
    #7420364 - 09/17/07 04:31 PM (16 years, 4 months ago)

Big Brother is watching

smile :smile:


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:shocked: *Divine Moments of Truth* :shocked:


"Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns - it calls me on and on across the universe" ~ John Lennon

"Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right" ~The Grateful Dead

"Religionists, with their guaranteed eventual paradise, of which they know nothing, taking it all on 'faith,' can't be expected to understand or sympathize with those with a yen to storm the Gate of Heaven and see for themselves what all the praying's about!" ~Robert Hunter


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InvisibleRustifer
prestige worldwide
Male


Registered: 04/10/05
Posts: 7,071
Loc: Central Texas
Re: Cops find drugs in Google Earth [Re: Help on the Way]
    #7421058 - 09/17/07 07:27 PM (16 years, 4 months ago)

Yah because everyone who grows is going to get busted with drugs and a gps with the location of their crops saved on it.


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Offlineemit
Trippy 70'sSci-Fi Movie
Male User Gallery


Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 06/20/07
Posts: 131
Loc: my place ;)
Last seen: 1 year, 5 months
Re: Cops find drugs in Google Earth [Re: Rustifer]
    #7421142 - 09/17/07 07:55 PM (16 years, 4 months ago)

yea
Quote:

Big Brother is watching

smile

-




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yes...


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OfflineSeussA
Error: divide byzero

Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 2 months, 20 days
Re: Cops find drugs in Google Earth [Re: Help on the Way]
    #7422414 - 09/18/07 04:26 AM (16 years, 4 months ago)

> Big Brother is watching

A very misleading title to the story. If you had read the story, you would know that the cops did not find drugs using google earth. Insted, the cops busted some guy that had GPS. In his GPS, he had saved the location of all his grows. The cops used google earth to figure out where the locations were based upon the GPS coordinates. The title of the story would have you believe that the cops were sitting at a desk using google earth to search for grow operations. As I said, very misleading.


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Just another spore in the wind.


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OfflineJive turkey
a black midget shemale
Male User Gallery


Registered: 07/12/07
Posts: 1,075
Last seen: 9 years, 7 months
Re: Cops find drugs in Google Earth [Re: veggie]
    #7424438 - 09/18/07 04:19 PM (16 years, 4 months ago)

I use google earth to find horse pastures :mushroom2: lol


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OfflinePsychdlcMes3
dirk
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Registered: 03/18/03
Posts: 514
Last seen: 6 years, 5 months
Re: Cops find drugs in Google Earth [Re: Jive turkey]
    #7424968 - 09/18/07 06:27 PM (16 years, 4 months ago)

damn i live in racine


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