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Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas police 'abused' license plate data for immigration search, Illinois police say
A Texas law enforcement agency reportedly used license plate data shared by a Chicago-area police department in locating a woman for immigration enforcement purposes, despite Illinois state law prohibiting such use. The Johnson County Sheriff's Office allegedly used data from Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) — also referred to as Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) — through Flock Safety, a private company. The "National Lookup" feature is used by law enforcement agencies "for purposes of immigration enforcement." The Illinois Secretary of State's Office notified the Mount Prospect Police Department that it was among multiple other law enforcement agencies whose data was used by the Texas department. "The use of ALPR data collected by Mount Prospect Flock Safety cameras for this purpose does not align with the Mount Prospect Police Department's values and is a clear violation of Illinois state law," the Chicago department stated in a press release. A site called 404 Media shows the Johnson County Sheriff's Office requested data from 83,000 of Flock Safety's cameras, including those in Mount Prospect. Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias is requesting an investigation into the incident by the attorney general, The Independent reports. He says he is also making an audit system to prevent similar uses of ALPR data in the future. A 2023 Illinois law prohibits the sharing of license plate data to track undocumented immigrants or people seeking abortions. A total of 262 immigrant-related searches were made between mid-January and April in Mount Prospect alone, Giannoulias said. Deputy Secretary of State Scott Burnham warned that such violations could lead to the loss of state funding. Giannoulias says he requested that Flock Safety block access to 62 out-of-state agencies seeking data related to abortion or immigration. The ALPR company also created a program to flag access requests with the terms "abortion" and "immigration" and deny the requests. Finally, law enforcement agencies will be required to respect the secretary of state's audits with the goal of noting trends in certain requests, Burnham explained. "I am tremendously upset that some law enforcement agencies who agreed to follow Illinois law, in order to gain access to our ALPR data, conducted illegal searches violating the trust of our community," Chief of Police Michael Eterno said. "As disappointed as I am with these other agencies, I want to emphasize that no member of the Mount Prospect Police Department shared ALPR data in violation of the law. I realize that this misuse of Mount Prospect's ALPR data violates the trust of our community, and we as a department will continue to work to enhance the Flock ALPR software and ensure this abuse does not occur in the future." Following the incident with the Johnson County Sheriff's Office, the Mount Prospect Police Department said it has made, or plans to make, several changes to prevent similar incidents in the future, including opted out of the Flock Safety "National Lookup" feature cancelled any data sharing agreement with law enforcement agencies who violated Illinois state law revoked access to Mount Prospect's ALPR data for all law enforcement agencies outside of Illinois will be updating its ALPR policy to include regular audits of the searches being conducted by internal and external users As of Friday morning, the Johnson County Sheriff's Office had not issued a public statement about the incident. The name of the individual who was the focus of the search has not been disclosed to the public. Flock Safety has released a statement amid what it calls "a misunderstanding." The ALPR company indicated contact with the Johnson County Sheriff's Office regarding the incident in Illinois, seeking to correct "misreporting" that the program was used "to target people seeking reproductive healthcare." The Sheriff allegedly told Flock Safety that this "is unequivocally false." "According to the Sheriff's office, a local family called and said their relative had self-administered an abortion, and then she ran away," Flock Safety said. "Her family feared she was hurt, and asked the deputy to search for her to the best of their abilities. Law enforcement performed a nationwide search in Flock, the broadest search possible within the system, to try to locate her quickly. Luckily, she was found safe and healthy in Dallas a couple of days later." The woman faces no charges and was never under criminal investigation, the ALPR company added, saying that Texas police were looking for her as a missing person rather than as a crime suspect. "We're grateful for the opportunity to work with Illinois officials to clarify what happened, correct misconceptions, and implement lasting improvements that uphold the trust of both law enforcement agencies and the residents they serve." — The Independent contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas police use of license plate data under investigation in Illinois
Time of India
09-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Bengaluru tech drama: How an ex-employee sabotaged company after being laid off
Hell hath no fury like an ex-employee scorned. A Bengaluru-based grocery startup, Kirana-Pro, recently faced one of the most severe data wipeouts in its operational history, shaking the foundation of its digital infrastructure. Initially, the company suspected that an outsider had infiltrated their systems and caused the damage. However, further investigation revealed a startling internal twist. The company's leadership now believes that the destruction of its data was not the work of a malicious external hacker but the intentional act of a former team member. Following an internal inquiry, Kirana-Pro's co-founder and CEO, Deepak Ravindran , addressed the issue on social media, indicating that a past employee may have been behind the data deletion. The investigation pointed toward a former colleague who was previously associated with Ravindran in another startup venture called Lookup. Kumar was not dismissed in the conventional sense but was removed from the team during a period of internal restructuring, which the leadership emphasized was not a disciplinary firing. — deepakravindran (@deepakravindran) In an interview with Hindustan Times, Ravindran identified the employee as one Lava Kumar and addressed why he was told to leave. The company had been undergoing significant changes in its internal structure, particularly with the arrival of a new chief technology officer named Sourav. This new leadership shift brought about a reorganization of the technical teams, and as a result, Kumar's position became redundant. Although the termination was not labeled as a formal firing, it effectively ended Kumar's responsibilities within the firm. Play Video Pause Skip Backward Skip Forward Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 1x Playback Rate Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off , selected Captions captions settings , opens captions settings dialog captions off , selected Audio Track default , selected Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Text Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Caption Area Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Drop shadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Rich Man Keeps Annoying Royal Guard, But He Didnt Expect This To Happen Beach Raider Undo Ravindran acknowledged that Kumar had a strong background in business and had previously expressed a desire to contribute to the company's product development. Initially, the leadership allowed him to explore that space due to the minimal development framework at the time. However, the arrival of the new CTO changed the company's strategic direction, prompting a comprehensive reshuffling of personnel to align with fresh objectives and goals. Following Kumar's departure, tensions arose between him and the company leadership, especially concerning business-related matters. However, according to Ravindran, those disputes have now been addressed and resolved amicably. Discussions between the two parties reportedly brought them closer to an agreement, suggesting that any hostility or resentment that once existed has since been put to rest. Kirana-Pro's leadership has downplayed any notion of ongoing conflict, asserting that the workplace atmosphere remains harmonious and cooperative despite the disruption caused by the data loss. While the deliberate erasure of sensitive corporate information is a serious allegation, the company has chosen to resolve the matter through mutual dialogue rather than escalating it into a legal battle. The incident highlights how internal disputes and structural changes, if not managed with clarity and caution, can lead to serious operational vulnerabilities. As Kirana-Pro works to recover from this unexpected blow, the episode serves as a cautionary tale for startups to establish clear protocols for data access, employee exits, and organizational restructuring.
