Deception and enticement have long been tools of the police, but new technologies have enabled investigative deceit to become more powerful and pervasive. Most of the attention given to today’s advances in police technology tends to focus either on online government surveillance1 or on the use of algorithms for predictive policing or threat assessment.2 No less important but less well known, however, are the enhanced capacities of the police to bait, lure, and dissemble in order to investigate crime. What are these new deceptive capabilities, and what is their importance? Misrepresentation by the police can take many forms. The police may deceive by concealing their identity, their purpose, or both. Police conceal their purpose when they try to convince a suspect to open his door by asking for help in locating a fictitious person. They conceal both their identity and purpose when they pretend to be mobsters or potential robbery victims. Covert policing of this second type has greatly expanded over time; a recent New York Times investigation estimated that there are thousands of undercover agents at the federal level alone.3 Consider the new world of baits, masks, and ruses. Baits: While offering attractive targets to entice potential thieves is not new, the baiting capabilities of the police are. Small GPS trackers can be embedded into everyday items, and their low cost means that police departments can use them to investigate many different crimes. For example, the NYPD has planted “bait bottles” with GPS trackers in drugstores to catch OxyContin thieves.4 Albuquerque police have created a “bait house” replete with GPS-embedded items.5 The San Francisco police have successfully used GPS-tracked bait bikes (and Twitter) to combat bicycle theft.6 Many local police departments have used bait cars with GPS trackers to investigate auto theft.7
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1 See, e.g., United States v. Garcia, 474 F.3d 994, 998 (7th Cir. 2007) (“Technological progress poses a threat to privacy by enabling an extent of surveillance that in earlier times would have been prohibitively expensive,” and thus “giv[es] the police access to surveillance techniques that are ever cheaper and ever more effective.”).
2 See, e.g., Erica Goode, Sending the Police Before There’s a Crime, N.Y. TIMES (Aug. 15, 2011), http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/us/16police.html.
3 Eric Lichtblau & William M. Arkin, More Federal Agencies Are Using Undercover Operations, N.Y. TIMES (Nov. 15, 2014), http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/us/more-federal-agencies -are-using-undercover-operations.html.
4 Joseph Goldstein, Police to Use Fake Pill Bottles to Track Drugstore Thieves, N.Y. TIMES (Jan. 15, 2013), http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/nyregion/ny-police-to-track-drugstore-... -via-decoy-bottles.html; Chris Matyszczyk, NYPD Uses GPS-Enabled Pill Bottle to Catch Alleged Drugstore Robber, CNET (May 18, 2014, 11:30 AM), http://www.cnet.com/news/nypd-uses-gps-enabled-pill-bottle-to-catch-drug... [http://perma.cc/6TBG-MJGZ]. 2015] TECHNOLOGY AND POLICE DECEPTION 247
5 “Bait” House Snags Would-Be Thief, KOAT-TV (June 22, 2013, 10:04 AM), http://www.koat.com/news/new-mexico/albuquerque/bait-house-snags-wouldbe... [http://perma.cc/2LWR-KU46].
6 Matt Richtel, Police Use High-Tech Lures to Reel in Bike Thieves, N.Y. TIMES (May 27, 2014), http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/28/us/police-use-high-tech-lures-to-reel-....
7 E.g., Tristan Hallman, Dallas Police to Ask for More Bait Cars, DAL. MORNING NEWS (Apr. 28, 2014, 10:57 PM), http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20140428-dallas-police-to-ask-for-m... [http://perma.cc/S292-K4T3]; KOAT-TV, supra note 5.
- Publication Type:Academic Writing
- Publication Date:04/10/2015