Surveillance and International Terrorism Intelligence Exchange: Balancing the Interests of National Security and Individual Liberty

Using the revelations Edward Snowden passed over to the press regarding the actions of the U.S.’s National Security Agency and the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters and their use of the Prism project, this article examines the law surrounding intelligence gathering in the U.S. and UK. Underpinning the analysis is the legal principle of proportionality as applied to balancing the interests of national security and individual liberties. After examining intelligence exchange procedures, which for the UK is through negotiated agreements between national security agencies and through the European Union’s policing agency, Europol, the main part of the article discusses legal challenges that have been made regarding surveillance and the use of anti-terror laws on citizens and the rationale behind the judicial decisions made in both the U.S. and UK jurisdictions. The argument forwarded is that there is a requirement for wide preventative powers being granted to counter-terrorism agencies and that the interests of national security and individual liberty are inclusive and, as shown by the cases covered in this article, we should rely on the judiciary to perform their function in applying proportionality to each case on its own merits.     

Radicalisation theories,policing practices,and “the future of terrorism?”

This article explores how theories of radicalisation have placed an emphasis on the development of an indicators-based approach to identify individuals who might engage in politically motivated violence. We trace how policing agencies have juxtaposed the search for indicators as a defence against criticisms of racial profiling. However, through an analysis of Canadian counter-terrorism training programmes, we demonstrate that the search for radicalisation indicators reaffirms pre-emptive and discriminatory security practices. We insist that despite efforts to theorise radicalisation outside of the practices of the “war on terror”, current trends risk rationalising prejudicial policing that affirms social exclusion and injustice.     

Determination of vehicle speed from recorded video using the open-source software Kinovea

Video devices of different kind often record traffic accidents, including vehicle-pedestrian collisions and hit-and-run accidents. In these cases, the vehicle speed is valuable information because it can assist the investigators in an accident reconstruction. This paper examines the use of Kinovea, an open-source video annotation tool designed for sport analysis, to estimate vehicle speed in forensic videos. Kinovea does not require a complex methodology, and it can be used to make the calculation easily. A series of vehicle driving experiments using an appropriately calibrated speed radar system (so called Scout Speed) were carried out, and measurements were compared with the estimated speed. In controlled conditions, the comparison of Scout reference speed and calculated average vehicle speed by means of Kinovea found an average difference of 0.43 km/h, with a margin of error of ±0.64 km/h. In addition, further preliminary tests were carried out to check the reliability of the measurements under lower resolution conditions. Also, in these cases the calculations were in line with the ground truth. Therefore, in the tested conditions, Kinovea demonstrated to be an easy and reliable tool available for forensic video examiners. Further tests need to be conducted in order to address the applicability of the measurement technique with true CCTV/surveillance video recordings.     

视频监控系统在街面犯罪侦查中的应用

近年来,街面犯罪呈现出许多新特点,案件总量不断攀升,如何及时有效地侦破街面犯罪案件,已成为公安机关面临的一项重大课题。合理安装、维护、使用视频监控系统,并将其与其他常规措施、手段相结合,视频监控将在街面犯罪侦查中发挥不可替代的作用。从国内外实践状况和发展趋势看,视频监控系统在街面犯罪侦查实践中的应用成效显著。     

职务犯罪侦查中指定居所监视居住的适 用简

2012年刑诉法修订,立法机关保留了监视居住,并对其功能重新定位,衍生出了指定居所监视居住。在具体适用中必须把握好保障人权、严格程序与审慎适用三个原则。准确理解指定居所监视居住异于一般监视居住的立法精神以及其分化出的程序性侦查功能,将有助于职务犯罪侦查机关正确比较适用强制措施。在具体操作中应着力构筑审批、执行、变更三个环节规范运行、全程监督的刚性程序。同时,指定居所监视居住作为制度创新仍有较大的完善空间,需要更多的理论反思和实践尝试。     

论我国视频警务的现状与完善

随着公安视频监控建设飞速发展,以充分发挥视频图像信息效能为核心的视频警务模式已悄然兴起。当前,视频警务在视频监控系统建设、视频图像分析技术等方面存在诸多问题,但最为核心的还是体制和机制方面的问题,表现为缺少系统化的工作体制,缺少规范化的工作流程。因此,应从视频图像信息的获取、分析、应用环节构建视频警务工作体系,科学设计视频的采集报送、分析研判、运行和保障的工作机制,进一步完善视频警务工作。     

Forensic examination of security features of the CDC-issued COVID-19 vaccination card and suggested improvements to minimize counterfeiting

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States released the CDC-issued vaccination card to document the status of immunizations. It eventually was used as a verification system to allow patrons to safely access public venues. This is/was apparently a simple printed piece of paper with minimal security features which made it an easy target for counterfeiters with little expertise required. Those unvaccinated who wished to enter areas that required proof of the COVID-19 vaccine were soon finding alternative illegal methods to do so which led to public health concerns. This research was divided into two parts. Part A aimed to forensically identify the security features with a video spectral comparator and a stereomicroscope. Ten “known” blank cards were collected directly from dispensaries that administered the vaccine and 68 “unknowns” from individuals who received the COVID-19 vaccine. Part B aimed to evaluate the authentication systems employed by countries outside the United States to propose a model on how the vaccination card could be improved and what security features should be included for future instances requiring proof of immunization. The results revealed the CDC document was produced with minimal security features making the document prone to counterfeiting. Furthermore, based on the information collected from other countries' vaccination certificates, it is recommended to develop a dual authentication system, with digital and printable aspects, that contains a QR code linked to a database. Other security features may include a non-optical brightener substrate, security fibers, a watermarked logo, offset printing, and a geographical color-coded system.     

An innovative method for human height estimation combining video images and 3D laser scanning

Digitalization has increased the number of video surveillance systems that sometimes capture crime images. Traditional methods of human height estimation use projective geometry. However, sometimes they cannot be used because the video camera surveillance system is not available or has been moved and there are no reference lines on the frame. Scientific studies have developed a new method for human height estimation using 3D laser scanning. This model necessarily requires a series of approximations, which increase the final measurement error. To overcome this problem, in the present study, images of a subject are projected directly on the 3D model, estimating the height of the subject. This article describes the methodological approach adopted through the analysis of a real case study in a controlled environment executed by Carabinieri Forensic Investigation Department (Italy). The aim is to obtain a human anthropometric measure derived from frames extracted from the videos associated with the digital survey of the framed area obtained with 3D laser scanning and point cloud analysis. The result is the height estimation of five subjects filmed by a camera obtained through the combination of 2D images extracted by a DVR/surveillance systems with 3D laser scanning. Results show that most estimated measurements are less than the real measurement of the subject; it also depends on the posture of the subject while walking. Furthermore, results shows the differences between the real height and the estimated height with a statistical approach.     

Zimbabwean Indigenisation and the Shadow Economy of Cinematic Production

ABSTRACT

In recent years, Zimbabwe has suffered a political and economic crisis, which has generated impulses that have traumatised the country's film industry, among many other sectors. Resultantly, Zimbabwe's cinematic context of production has been reimagined and reconfigured in recent years. The southern African country's ruling elite, during former president Robert Mugabe's tenure, championed controversial policies of indigenisation in economic sectors, partly as a way of countering external economic and political hostilities. This article explores how the Zimbabwean film economy has responded to postcolonial indigenisation impulses and how the production context has developed parallel to or in tandem with this reality. It teases out the challenges and prospects posed by impulses of indigenisation in Zimbabwe to the country's fledgling film production industry by analysing the video-film production value chain post-2000, when the indigenisation agenda emerged and was consolidated. Informed by the theorisation of the shadow economies of cinema, the study employed in-depth interviews to collect data from purposively selected Zimbabwean filmmakers and policymakers. Thematic analysis was used to analyse this data. The study shows that indigenisation has been a pragmatic response to the economic trauma facing the film industry, although it has, in turn, sent out its own traumatic impulses that continue to affect the industry's structure and aesthetic.     

Introduction to “charting,tracking, and mapping: new technologies,labor, and surveillance”

Advances in information technologies over the last two decades have offered the promise of revolutionizing workplaces and other settings by expanding the capabilities of individuals working in various professions. Enabled by high-speed computing systems and marked by an intensification of command and control properties, new technologies have expanded, and in some cases intentionally surpassed, the scope of the senses. Technologies such as drones, surveillance cameras, and airport and border security systems promise the seemingly infinite catchment and infinitesimal account of human actions, while computer processing software provides real-time data on large-scale transactional processes occurring in monetary systems and security markets. Charting, tracking, and mapping functions open up new vistas for quantifying social behaviors and detecting misbehaviors, creating new frontiers for criminal justice, the military, and economic activity. The papers in this special issue reveal the processes guiding the rapid transformation and flexible adaptation of institutional structures, economic and financial systems, and threat surveillance and military/police mobilization in the near future.