Tag: police

UPDATE: Secret police blogger unmasked by courts

The police officer behind the award-winning Night Jack blog has been revealed. The disclosure comes as a result of detective constable Richard Horton losing a legal case in which he sought an injunction against The Times to keep his anonymity.

Mr Justice Eady refused the injunction, ruling that it was in the public interest to reveal DC Horton’s identity.

The Night Jack blog had received wide praise for its honest and frank representations of police life and was awarded the Orwell special prize for blogs earlier this year.

Unfortunately the blog has now been deleted at Wordpress, although you can still read some extracts via The Guardian.

(via The FT)

Paul Lamkin Internet

If your Sat Nav told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it?

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Are you one of those lunatics that spends more time watching the virtual reality of your sat nav’s screen than actually looking at the road? You’re in company. Robert Jones followed instructions from his Sat Nav until half his car was dangling off a cliff.

He only stopped because a wire fence preventing him from getting any further – completely ignoring the fact he was driving down a dirt track three metres wide. The police have charged him with driving without due care and attention, and he describes the incident as a ‘nightmare’.

(via BBC)

Duncan Geere Satellite Navigation systems

Quick! Encrypt your hard drives now: Euro police could be hacking your PC

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It’s very easy to become alarmed by some of the scaremongering stories which appear in certain sections of the UK press when it comes to technology and privacy, but this one – if abused – could be pretty serious indeed.

According to The Times, The Home Office has developed plans to give the UK police force the power to remotely hack into the personal computer of anyone it suspects might be involved with something dodgy — you know, terrorism, paedophilia, drug trafficking, that kind of thing — without a warrant, with the additional joyous notion that police forces from across the European Union can request information on any British Citizen.

Yes, it does all sound a bit Daily Mail, but unsurprisingly it’s raised the hackles of the human rights group Liberty, which has said that it will mount a legal challenge.

Andy Merrett Computers

WoW fan threatens suicide to Blizzard rep, gets arrested

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An unnamed 17-year-old was taken into police custody the other day in Ohio, following a threat that he’d commit suicide to an in-game Blizzard representative (known as a GM). The staffer contacted local emergency services, who showed up at the kid’s house.

The kid told the GM that “he was suicidal and the game was the only thing he had to live for”. Other people have tried stuff like that on Blizzard before, but this is the first time that someone’s been arrested over it.

Duncan Geere Gaming

RoboCop could be a reality on Britain's streets before the 22nd century

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The top bod studying artificial intelligence and robotics believes that we could have robot security guards, autonomous police cars, and humanoid traffic wardens patrolling Britain’s streets within the next 75 years.

Professor Noel Sharkey of the University of Sheffield has been studying the evolution of robots and how they’ll be increasingly used in modern society.

Robots will have access to integrated databases of information on Brits’ bank accounts, tax, vehicles, shopping history, criminal records, and even what they’re doing. This would then allow them to identify who people are (accurately, hopefully)…

Andy Merrett Robots