Vigilant Solutions, one of the country’s largest brokers of vehicle surveillance technology, is offering a hell of a deal to law enforcement agencies in Texas: a whole suite of automated license plate reader (ALPR) equipment and access to the company’s massive databases and analytical tools—and it won’t cost the agency a dime.

Even though the technology is marketed as budget neutral, that doesn’t mean no one has to pay. Instead, Texas police fund it by gouging people who have outstanding court fines and handing Vigilant all of the data they gather on drivers for nearly unlimited commercial use.

ALPR refers to high-speed camera networks that capture license plate images, convert the plate numbers into machine-readable text, geotag and time-stamp the information, and store it all in database systems. EFF has long been concerned with this technology, because ALPRs typically capture sensitive location information on all drivers—not just criminal suspects—and, in aggregate, the information can reveal personal information, such as where you go to church, what doctors you visit, and where you sleep at night.

Vigilant is leveraging H.B. 121, a new Texas law passed in 2015 that allows officers to install credit and debit card readers in their patrol vehicles to take payment on the spot for unpaid court fines, also known as capias warrants. When the law passed, Texas legislators argued that not only would it help local government with their budgets, it would also benefit the public and police. As the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Allen Fletcher, wrote in his official statement of intent:

[T]he option of making such a payment at the time of arrest could avoid contributing to already crowded jails, save time for arresting officers, and relieve minor offenders suddenly informed of an uncollected payment when pulled over for a routine moving violation from the burden of dealing with an impounded vehicle and the potential inconvenience of finding someone to supervise a child because of an unexpected arrest.

The bill was supported by criminal justice reform groups such as the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, but it also raised concerns by respected criminal justice blogger Scott Henson ofGrits For Breakfast, who theorized that the law, combined with ALPR technology, could allow police officers to “cherry pick drivers with outstanding warrants instead of looking for current, real-time traffic violations.”

He further asked:

Are there enough departments deploying license plate readers to cause concern? Will they use them in such a fashion? How will anyone know? Is it possible to monitor—or better, measure—any shift in on-the-ground police priorities resulting from the new economic incentives created by the bill?

As it turns out, contracts between between Vigilant and Guadalupe County and the City of Kylein Texas reveal that Henson was right to worry.

The “warrant redemption” program works like this. The agency is given no-cost license plate readers as well as free access to LEARN-NVLS, the ALPR data system Vigilant says contains more than 2.8-billion plate scans and is growing by more than 70-million scans a month. This also includes a wide variety of analytical and predictive software tools. Also, the agency is merely licensing the technology; Vigilant can take it back at any time.

The government agency in turn gives Vigilant access to information about all its outstanding court fees, which the company then turns into a hot list to feed into the free ALPR systems. As police cars patrol the city, they ping on license plates associated with the fees. The officer then pulls the driver over and offers them a devil’s bargain: get arrested, or pay the original fine with an extra 25% processing fee tacked on, all of which goes to Vigilant.1 In other words, the driver is paying Vigilant to provide the local police with the technology used to identify and then detain the driver. If the ALPR pings on a parked car, the officer can get out and leave a note to visit Vigilant’s payment website.

But Vigilant isn’t just compensated with motorists’ cash. The law enforcement agencies are also using the privacy of everyday drivers as currency.

From Vigilant Solutions contract with City of Kyle

Buried in the fine print of the contract with Vigilant is a clause that says the company also get to keep a copy of all the license-plate data collected by the agency, even after the contract ends. According the company’s usage and privacy policy, Vigilant “retains LPR data as long as it has commercial value.” Vigilant can sell or license that information to other law enforcement bodies and potentially to private companies such as insurance firms and repossession agencies.

In early December 2015, Vigilant issued a press release bragging that Guadalupe County had used the systems to collect on more than 4,500 warrants between April and December 2015. In January 2016, the City of Kyle signed an identical deal with Vigilant. Soon after, Guadalupe County upgraded the contract to allow Vigilant to dispatch its own contractors to collect on capias warrants.

Update: Buzzfeed has published an in-depth report on how police in Port Arthur, Texas also use Vigilant Solutions ALPR technology to collect fines. 

Alarmingly, in December, Vigilant also quietly issued an apology on its website for a major error:

During the second week of December, as part of its Warrant Redemption Program, Vigilant Solutions sent several warrant notices – on behalf of our law enforcement partners – in error to citizens across the state of Texas. A technical error caused us to send warrant notices to the wrong recipients.

These types of mistakes are not acceptable and we deeply apologize to those who received the warrant correspondence in error and to our law enforcement customers.

Vigilant is right: this is not acceptable. Yet, the company has not disclosed the extent of the error, how many people were affected, how much money was collected that shouldn’t have been, and what it’s doing to inform and make it up to the people affected. Instead, the company simply stated that it had “conducted a thorough review of the incident and have implemented several internal policies.”

We’re unlikely to get answers from the government agencies who signed these contracts. To access Vigilant’s powerful online data systems, agencies agree not to disparage the company or even to talk to the press without the company’s permission:

From Vigilant Solutions LEARN-NVLS User Agreement

You shall not create, publish, distribute, or permit any written, electronically transmitted or other form of publicity material that makes reference to the LEARN LPR Database Server or this Agreement without first submitting the material to Vigilant and receiving written consent from Vigilant thereto…

You agree not to use proprietary materials or information in any manner that is disparaging. This prohibition is specifically intended to preclude you from cooperating or otherwise agreeing to allow photographs or screenshots to be taken by any member of the media without the express consent of LEARN-NVLS. You also agree not to voluntarily provide ANY information, including interviews, related to LEARN products or its services to any member of the media without the express written consent of LEARN-NVLS.

You might very well ask at this point about the legality of this scheme. Vigilant anticipated that and provided the City of Kyle with a slide titled “Can I Really Do This?” which cited a law that they believe allows for the 25% surcharge.

The law states that a county or municipality “may only charge a fee for the access or service if the fee is designed to recover the costs directly and reasonably incurred in providing the access or service.”

We believe that a 25% fee is not reasonable and doesn’t recover just the direct costs, since the fee is actually paying for the whole ALPR system, including surveillance capabilities unrelated to warrant redemption, such as access to the giant LEARN-NVLS database and software suite.

Beyond that, the system raises a whole host of problems:

• It turns police into debt collectors, who have to keep swiping credit cards to keep the free equipment.
• It turns police into data miners, who use the privacy of local drivers as currency.
• It not-so-subtly shifts police priorities from responding to calls and traffic violations to responding to a computer’s instructions.
• Policy makers and the public are unable to effectively evaluate the technology since the contract prohibits police from speaking honestly and openly about the program.
• The model relies on debt: there’s no incentive for criminal justice leaders to work with the community to reduce the number of capias warrants, since that could result in losing the equipment.
• People who have committed no crimes whatsoever have their driving patterns uploaded into a private system and no opportunity to control or watchdog how that data is disseminated.

There was a time where companies like Vigilant marketed ALPR technology as a way to save kidnapped children, recover stolen cars, and catch violent criminals. But as we’ve long warned, ALPRs in fact are being deployed for far more questionable practices.

The Texas public should be outraged at the terrible deals their representatives are signing with this particular surveillance contractor, and the legislature should reexamine the unintended consequences of the law they passed last year.

• 1.The contracts are inconsistent on how this fee breaks down. For example, the City of Kyle contract lists 5% of “credit card processing,” 5% for “credit card handling,” and 15% for a “vendor transaction fee.”

Published by https://www.eff.org/

ROSENBERG, TX – Alonza Gonzalez was turning right near 59 and FM 762 several months ago but just recently received the dash camera video after he filed public records requests.

“Just because I have a handgun on me and a license to carry should not be a big deal, but that is what made it the turning point,” Gonzalez said.

In the video, you can hear Rosenberg Police Officer Schnacky say, “You got your drivers license with you and insurance?” Gonzalez said, “Yeah, what’s the reason you stopped me?”

The officer then said, “I’ll tell you in just a minute.”
Schnacky continued, “You have your handgun with you today? Where is it?” Gonzalez replied, “On me, on my right side.”

At that point, the officer called for backup, seemingly because the driver had a concealed handgun.

When the backup officer arrived, he was told Gonzalez was not being cooperative and then he pulled his gun out of the holster and walked up to the truck window.

Schnacky can be heard saying, “Mr. Gonzalez, get your hands up on the wheel, both of them. Appreciate it. Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to step out of the truck for me; when you do so I want you to keep your hands on the back of your head, OK?”

Seconds later, Gonzalez was arrested: “You’re under arrest for your traffic violations.”

During an interview at his Rosenberg home, Gonzalez told Channel 2 he thinks if he didn’t have a gun, things would have ended differently.

“If I didn’t have my firearm on me, I would have had a citation and they would have let me go.”
Channel 2 called Rosenberg police several times and went by the department to get a comment on the story, but no one would speak with us.

According to reports obtained by Channel 2, an internal investigation determined the officer involved followed all proper procedures.

AUSTIN — A case of jaywalking turns nasty as Austin PD tackles a San Antonio man, punching and kicking him to the ground.

Cameras roll as he and his friends yell for officers to let up.

The video, which was posted to Facebook and YouTube, shows seven bicycle police officers arresting three people on the sidewalk along 6th street in Austin.

One of those arrested, 22-year-old Jeremy King, had come up from San Antonio to enjoy a music festival.

His mother, Nevetta King, says she learned of the incident shortly after it happened, around 3:00am. She says when she saw the video, her heart dropped.

“One of the most difficult things I’ve had to watch,” said King. “I kept watching trying to look for fault on his part, I didn’t see any.”

The video doesn’t show what happened before the officers began apprehending Jeremy and his friends.

Jeremy says they had crossed the street before being given a walk signal. When the cops approached, he says he and his friends made the mistake of uttering something rude under their breath.

Video shows cops punching accused jaywalkers

Austin police declined to discuss the details of the arrest, but released a statement saying they are currently investigating.

“As is standard protocol, the Chain of Command will review the Response to Resistance and the incident to determine what led up to the events captured in the video and whether the officer’s actions were in compliance with APD policy.”

Nevetta says wants to see what happens with the investigation, but at this point can’t see any justification for the manner of the arrest.

She says she’s proud of Jeremy for containing his temper during the scuffle, and hopes the video raises awareness as accusations of police brutality ring out around the country.

“Just comply, quickly, so you do not become a statistic,” said King.

More than anything, though, she says she just wants to be there for her son.

“I want to hug my son and support him through this,” said King.

Former Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins is accused of misusing asset forfeiture funds for personal use. The Dallas Morning News got hold of an audit expected to be released later on today showing Watkins gave cash to everything from lawyers to travel expenses to a sponsorship for a football league.

Watkins also impermissibly donated money forfeited by drug and other offenders to local groups — $3,000 to Bishop Dunne Catholic School in Oak Cliff and $300 to sponsor a veterans group’s display at a parade, state Auditor John Keel reports.

In the final two years before the Democrat lost to Republican Susan Hawk, Watkins and his office spent an additional $71,000 of forfeiture money on public service announcements, other promotional activities, legal fees and travel…

In 2011, The News reviewed Watkins’ use of the money and found more than $50,000 for cellphone bills and $46,891 for bar association dues. Other expenses included $270.55 for “snacks/supplies for children waiting area” and $617.50 for 650 gold-plated whistles.

Here’s why this is a big issue: civil asset forfeiture is NOT seizing cash or other items from criminals. It’s grabbing things from people who authorities claim to suspect of maybe, possibly thinking about committing a crime, but don’t arrest them. It’d be like if a police officer walked up to someone and thought it odd they had thousands of dollars in cash, so they decided to seize it. Oh wait, that’s exactly what happened to a 22-year-old who was taking a train through New Mexico. Joseph Rivers was headed to Hollywood to make a music video. Albuquerque Journal picks it up from there.

A DEA agent boarded the train at the Albuquerque Amtrak station and began asking various passengers, including Rivers, where they were going and why. When Rivers replied that he was headed to LA to make a music video, the agent asked to search his bags. Rivers complied…

In one of the bags, the agent found the cash, still in the Michigan bank envelope.

“I even allowed him to call my mother, a military veteran and (hospital) coordinator, to corroborate my story,” Rivers said. “Even with all of this, the officers decided to take my money because he stated that he believed that the money was involved in some type of narcotic activity.”

This is government theft and what’s shocking is how flippant authorities are about this. A DEA agent even admitted to ABQJ how easy it is to get away with (emphasis mine).

“We don’t have to prove that the person is guilty. It’s that the money is presumed to be guilty.”

Anyone see the problem here? The Fourth Amendment guarantees people have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects from unreasonable search and seizures. TheFifth Amendment says people shouldn’t have their life, liberty, or property taken from them without due process. Law enforcement, the folks who are supposed to protect us from criminals, are basically becoming the criminals themselves by grabbing the cash or items. They’re stretching the definition of reasonable to as far as they can get away with and not even allowing people to challenge in court because of how nebulously named the court cases are. Did you know in 2014 only $679M was seized in criminal asset forfeiture in the entire U.S.? That’s from people who were charge with crimes. You want to know how much was grabbed in civil asset forfeiture? $39B as in BILLION.

There is good news because movement is happening on the federal and state level on civil asset forfeiture reform. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is pretty involved in reform and pushing it through the Senate Judiciary Committee. One thing he found was the “Department of Justice” (note sarcasm) pretty much acts as an enabler for law enforcement theft.

The Justice Department administers a program called the Equitable Sharing Program.  It allows local law enforcement to keep up to 80 percent of the assets that they seize.  The trajectory of the program has climbed considerably in recent years, by the billions of dollars.  Those who have been mistreated by forfeiture have their lives and livelihoods turned upside down.  It has put law-abiding citizens in the cross hairs of an unfair process that produces profits for police but undermines the value of the forfeiture laws to target crime.  Legislation is needed to rein in abuses and prevent government overreach.

For those wondering what the Equitable Sharing Program is, it’s basically an end around past state civil asset forfeiture laws. Local law enforcement can grab items and give 20% of it to the federal government. The proposed FAIR Act would do plenty toward reform to civil asset forfeiture by requiring a hearing on the seized property within 14 days. Law enforcement would be forced to prove why they seized the property and present probable cause. It’d also end the Equitable Sharing Program. But police unions are pushing really, really hard against any reform. Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury told the Senate how the FAIR Act would make things much more difficult for them.

“We can be sure of only one thing if the draft bill is enacted as written: there will be even fewer resources available to State and local law enforcement and fewer State and local law enforcement agencies will be able to participate in Federal task forces to combat regional and organized criminal threats, including domestic and foreign terrorist threats.”

Basically ending the sharing of seized cash means police (and states) would have to show…financial responsibility! The cash cow of being able to grab money from people who aren’t even charged with a crime, would be replaced by the local or state budget. Jason Pye at FreedomWorks sums up why civil asset forfeiture needs to be curtailed by telling me reforms “ensure the burden of proof falls on the government, and take away the profit motive often associated with forfeiture by directing the proceeds to the general fund or neutral accounts.” If conservatives and libertarians get angry about the government misusing taxpayer dollars, they need to be angry about federal, state, and local governments stealing from people who aren’t even charged with a crime. The Fifth Amendment exists for a reason. It’s time the government remembers it exists too.

By Taylor Millard

A man is in custody after a SWAT stand-off in southeast Houston that lasted several hours Saturday.

It happened in the 7700 block of Leonara near Telephone Road and Bellfort.

The suspect’s mother said a police officer shot at her son even though according to her, he was not a threat to them.

“I told them, ‘I can handle. Allow me to talk. Let me see him.’ They say , ‘No,'” Blanca Medina said.

Police said the man pointed a shotgun at one of their officers while they were trying to talk to him.

“At one point during the exchange with the suspect, (the suspect) manages to raise the shotgun and he pointed it directly in the direction of the patrol sergeant,” said HPD spokesman Victor Senties.

Police said the suspect did that twice and both times the officer fired at the man.

The officer’s bullets apparently struck the burglar bars the man was standing behind in the home and miraculously missed him. Neither the officer nor the suspect was injured in the gunfire.

The man proceeded to lock himself in his town house and at some point his girlfriend was able to get out of the home. Police then brought in heavy SWAT equipment and after several hours, tear gas canisters were fired into the town home.

Shortly afterward police announced the situation was under control and the suspect was in custody.

The trouble apparently started over something the suspect posted on Facebook yesterday. His live-in girlfriend apparently became upset after seeing the post and the couple began a marathon argument.

By Saturday morning, the man reportedly became suicidal and picked up a knife.

Senties said the man’s girlfriend called paramedics and when police showed up, the four and a half hour stand-off began. The suspect is now in custody possibly facing charges of aggravated assault of a public servant.

Senties said officers are glad no one was seriously injured.

From his small store front in the Sears parking lot in Midtown, Adrian Gonzales makes keys. It was what he was doing on the afternoon of June 9, when something went wrong just a few feet away.

“I didn’t see anything, didn’t hear anything,” said Gonzales. “I didn’t know anything was going on until all the police were gathered away over there,” pointing to a corner of the parking lot.

Gonzales says a Houston police officer and a METRO police officer would often patrol and park at that corner of the parking lot. Both would be on their motorcycles.

On the afternoon of June 9, Houston motorcycle police officer Terry Smith was shot in the back while parked at that spot, in the Sears parking lot. Within hours, HPD released information to the public that it was looking for a champagne colored vehicle with a man and a pregnant woman inside. They were considered possible suspects. At the time, the Houston Police Officers’ Union had harsh words for the unknown shooter: “He’s a coward to shoot a man in the back when he’s not even looking at you,” said HPOU board member Joseph Gamaldi on that day.

Now, there is one major problem. Multiple sources close to the investigation have told Eyewitness News that investigators now believe the story was fabricated. They are coming to the conclusion there may never have been a champagne colored car with two people inside.

Sources close to the investigation say HPD is working on the theory that Officer Smith may have been hit by gunfire from his friend at the scene, METRO Police Officer Gregory Hudson. METRO confirms Hudson was placed on desk duty on September 2. The agency says the move was made after HPD investigators began requesting information, including firearms records from METRO. Sources say there is also apparently no surveillance video to back up the original story.

Back at the key-making kiosk, Gonzales is shocked by the developments. He now thinks perhaps the reason he did not notice any other vehicles that afternoon was “because there wasn’t anything that happened. Crazy.”

The Houston Police Department says Officer Smith is still on the job while the investigation continues. So far, no disciplinary action has been taken.

Austin, Texas: Only a few days after the anniversary of 9/11, Austin police nearly kill an animal activist at a peaceful protest. On September 19, at a Black Lives Matter / Anti-Police Brutality march, six people were arrested and many others harmed, beaten and maced.

According to The Daily Texan, “The rally against police brutality was held at the Capitol in opposition to a concurrently held Police Lives Matter rally, which garnered a crowd of 2,000 people, according to Austin police.”

“The Police Lives Matter rally started in front of the Austin Police Department headquarters, and members marched up Congress Avenue toward the north and eastern lawns of the Capitol building. The rally was held in honor of Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Darren Goforth, who was shot and killed Aug. 28 while
pumping gas.”

Julian Reyes, a well-known animal rights activist was among those beaten and arrested in front of the state capital. Julian’s dog, Shiner Bock, was killed by Austin police in 2013 in the midst of many other notorious dog murders by Austin police. A tribute Facebook page for Shiner Bock has been established to raise awareness for the senseless murders of innocent animals by Austin police.

Reyes was filming the peaceful protest last Saturday with his certified companion service animal, Lizlee, who was also reportedly manhandled by the enraged police force. In the words of Reyes, “I’m a hardcore activist and that I defend our Family dogs from police violence. Well now the Austin Police and DPS grabbed, beat, tazed, and tried to kill me and my trauma support lizard, Lizlee.”

“I’m recovering and in pretty bad shape now. They falsely arrested me while I was filiming them. There is lots of video around of the police abuses. I may have broken ribs, concussion, and cervical neck damage. It’s too early to tell. I can barely walk or breathe. It happened on Saturday and I was charged twice. The National Lawyers Guild was there and they assisted me and 5 others in jail release. But not all the charges have been made clear. Victim-less crimes are no crimes at all. They are Civil issues.”

The city of Austin has become out of control, a police state. Recently, ex-cop Chris Noble running Austin Animal Center threatened me with jail when I arrived to retrieve our rescue dog, LuLu. During the aftermath,American Pit Bull Examiner and Reunion Rescue became involved with Julian Reyes and his struggle to seek justice for the murder of his dog, Shiner Bock. Reyes and companion pet, Lizlee, are regular visitors at Reunion Rescue public events.

The videos and photos of last Saturday’s attack by Austin police against innocent citizens and animal activists like Reyes has become too commonplace and must stop. Please share this story and watch for updates and a petition to demand these atrocities come to an end. Beating people up is not considered ‘weird’….it’s considered abuse of power.

A Central Texas man who claimed anti-police vandals had attacked the family pickup truck has been arrested after police believe he vandalized the truck.

Scott Lattin, a disabled veteran, told Whitney police on Sept. 8 someone tagged his truck with “Black Lives Matter” and other graffiti because he displayed pro-police messages and symbols on his pickup.

But on Friday afternoon, Whitney police arrested Lattin on a misdemeanor charge of making a false police report.

“Very disturbing,” said Whitney Police Chief Chris Bentley.

Bentley said the investigation turned to Lattin because after FOX4 Dallas Ft Worth first broke the story.

“We had initial video when the officers took the report and then when we saw your story on Channel 4. When we looked at those two videos, there were some differences in those and that led us to take the investigation into a different direction,” Bentley said.

Bentley said when they took the report there was no damage to the inside of the truck. But when FOX4 showed up, Lattin showed that the glove box was ripped off and the seats slashed.

Lattin denies the charges by police that he vandalized his own vehicle, telling FOX4, “That’s absolutely not true! Absolutely not true.”

But Lattin’s arrest warrant affidavit said Lattin admitted damaging the inside of his vehicle for insurance reasons.

Police say they’re not looking for any additional suspects. More charges against Lattin, including felonies, could be filed.

“We have so many groups that have participated and come to Whitney, Texas of all places to help these people– and for them to have been deceived?  It’s just wrong!” Bentley said.

Lattin’s neighbor Levonda Bradshaw was suspicious from the very beginning, because they have a fenced in property with dogs that bark at everyone that comes near there.

Word began to spread quickly in the small town of about 2,000 residents of Lattin’s arrest.

“Oh this just makes me sick!  This is just wrong,” said Marty Rosseau, Whitney resident.

A Lattin family relative started a Go Fund Me account to help pay for repairs to the truck. In addition, car dealers and body shops even offered to help.

The police chief is asking people to stop sending the family money. He’s working with the district attorney’s office to see how to handle the Go Fund Me account that raised nearly $6,000 and hopes to get the money back to duped donors.

One online post in particular bothers the chief.

“One of the social media pages said ‘My husband is an officer, I can give you $25 because that’s all I can afford.’  That just ripped at my heart,” Bentley said.

In FOX4’s initial report Lattin’s 18-year-old son Jason, who wanted to be a police officer, was interviewed. After his father’s arrest, neither he nor his mother wanted to talk.

Police in Texas have arrested a 14-year-old boy for building a clock. Ahmed Mohamed, who lives in Irving and has a keen interest in robotics and engineering, put the device together on Sunday night. When he took it to school the next day, he was pulled out of class, interviewed by police officers, and taken in handcuffs to juvenile detention, after being told by teachers that his creation looked like a bomb.

Ahmed told The Dallas Morning News that he showed his clock — a simple device, created from a circuit board and a power supply wired to a digital display, all strapped inside a case with a tiger hologram on the front — to his engineering teacher first, who advised him not to show any other staff members at MacArthur High School. He originally kept it in his bag during English class, but his teacher heard it beep during the lesson — when Ahmed showed her his home-made clock at the end of class, she took it away from him. In sixth period, the school principal came for Ahmed with a police officer in tow, arresting him and marching him out of school. The schoolboy says he was interrogated by five officers, who asked why he was trying to make a bomb, and was threatened with expulsion by his Principal unless he made a written statement.

Irving police might still charge Ahmed with making a “hoax bomb.” Police spokesperson James McLellan said Ahmed “kept maintaining it was a clock” when he was brought in for interrogation, but that he offered “no broader explanation.” When asked by The Dallas Morning News what broader explanation Ahmed could have given for a clock that was actually a clock, McLellan said the creation “could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car.” A police report released on Tuesday cites three MacArthur High teachers as complainants against Ahmed for the “hoax bomb.”

Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, Ahmed’s father, says his child suffered because of prejudice against Muslims. “Because his name is Mohamed and because of September 11th,” Mohamed told The Dallas Morning News, “I think my son got mistreated.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations is already investigating Ahmed’s case, with Alia Salem, the director of the council’s North Texas chapter, saying that it seemed “pretty egregious.”

Ahmed said he was a member of his middle school’s robotics club, and had tried to find a similar group in his high school. Now the 14-year-old — born in the same year that the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon took place — says he’ll no longer bring any of his inventions into school. A picture reportedly taken by Ahmed’s sister shows him in handcuffs at the juvenile detention center, sporting a NASA T-shirt and an understandably confused expression. Ahmed was fingerprinted, before being allowed to return home, but is still serving a three-day suspension from school.

Many in the maker and tech community have already rallied around him. A hashtag — #IStandWithAhmed — rapidly rose to become one of Twitter’s top trending topics, and support has come from a number of sources, including a JPL engineer who offered Ahmed the chance to see a Mars rover whenever he wants. Ahmed’s father says his son “just wants to invent good things for mankind” — we can hope that the police reaction won’t dissuade the talented young creator from making good on his dream.

Initially reported by The Dallas Morning News and The Verge

Medical records have long been given an increased expectation of privacy, something that dates back to before the passage of HIPAA. (See also: Hippocratic Oath.) Consultations with doctors — and the written records resulting from them — have generally been treated as confidential, seeing as they contain potentially embarrassing/damaging information. Personal health information can be reported to law enforcement for many reasons: suspicion of criminal activity on the health entity’s property, suspicion of criminal activity related to an off-site emergency, reporting a death, patients with stabbing/gunshot wounds, or in the case of a serious/immediate threat. Otherwise, HIPAA’s rules for law enforcement say personal information can only be released under the following conditions:

To comply with a court order or court-ordered warrant, a subpoena or summons issued by a judicial officer, or an administrative request from a law enforcement official (the administrative request must include a written statement that the information requested is relevant and material, specific and limited in scope, and de-identified information cannot be used).

The bar is set pretty low and the DEA has been taking advantage of it. Jon Cassidy of Watchdog.org is reporting that the agency is rooting around in medical records in hopes of finding patients or health care providers who might be abusing drugs.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has been sifting through hundreds of supposedly private medical files, looking for Texas doctors and patients to prosecute without the use of warrants.

What the DEA is using instead is a blend of impersonation and administrative permission slips sporting the agency’s own signature.

Instead, the agents are tricking doctors and nurses into thinking they’re with the Texas Medical Board. When that doesn’t work, they’re sending doctors subpoenas demanding medical records without court approval.

How often is this happening? Apparently it’s so close to “all the time” that the DEA doesn’t even have an approximate guess. This is what a DEA spokesperson told the Daily Caller.

“It’s not like there’s ten of them. There’s probably thousands — I know there are thousands,” Matt Barden, spokesman for the DEA, told the Daily Caller News Foundation about the DEA’s use of administrative subpoenas.

Early last year, a federal court in Oregon ruled the DEA could not access the state’s prescription database without a warrant. Unfortunately, this was due to Oregon’s state laws being more restrictive than federal law. A federal judge in Texas reached the opposite conclusion, finding that the DEA’s use of administrative subpoenas complied with both HIPAA and state law. This decision is now headed for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, where it is hoped a finding similar to the decision in Oregon will be the end result. But judging from the laws in place, that outcome is doubtful.

While the DEA’s use of administrative subpoenas appears to comply with HIPAA’s restrictions, its repeated attempts (many of them successful) to access medical records with no paperwork whatsoever seem less likely to stand up to legal scrutiny.

The Dallas-area doctors bringing the lawsuit against the DEA have uncovered plenty of DEA subterfuge. In their case, three DEA agents showed up at their offices with a state medical board investigator. Only the investigator identified herself. The agents remained silent, allowing the nurse to believe they, too, were with the state medical board.

The state medical board may have every right to view medical records without any accompanying paperwork, but that’s because this information falls directly under its purview. The DEA, however, is looking to build criminal cases. This brings with it additional Fourth Amendment considerations and, at the very least, should bind it to the minimal restrictions of HIPAA. Apparently, issuing its own permission slips is still too much work and the delivered paperwork might accidentally restrict it to only certain medical records pertaining to certain people. By impersonating medical board members, agents have unrestricted access to whatever they ask for.

As Watchdog’s Jon Cassidy points out, patients who’d like their privacy respected may want to seek their prescriptions and refills… elsewhere.

The DEA’s practice of avoiding warrant requirements has produced this absurdity: If you have a prescription for Adderall or OxyContin, you might be safer getting your drugs on the street than through your own doctor.

Street dealers, after all, don’t keep patient records, and they’re afforded more constitutional protections than medical practitioners. That is, cops still need a warrant to search them.

While the latter isn’t strictly true in all cases, it’s true enough to show how limited the protections of HIPAA actually are. The more disturbing aspect is that the DEA isn’t even satisfied with near-instant access to a wealth of medical records provided by administrative subpoenas. It apparently only uses the correct paperwork as Plan B, preferring to mislead medical practitioners by allowing them to believe its agents are investigators working for the state medical board.