Feds move forward with new tattoo recognition tech in prisons

Gaithersburg, MD (November 1, 2018) BTN — The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) partnered with the FBI to evaluate a tattoo recognition software to be implemented in federal prisons.

The software evaluates tattoos for political beliefs, religious beliefs and any organizational affiliation, including criminal.

NIST said the Tattoo Recognition Technology Program is designed to assess and measure the capability of systems to perform automated image-based tattoo recognition. Organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) question the legitimacy of how this technology benefits American citizens.

“One of the emerging technologies is tattoo recognition,” Dave Maass said. “We really would like to challenge, then criticize it before it really becomes as widespread as some of the other technologies that are out there.”

Maass is a senior investigative researcher at EFF and has followed NIST’s program since 2015, one year after its start.

NIST is reviewing this technology for use in federal prisons, and they used images of inmates’ tattoos for their Tattoo Recognition Technology Challenge (Tatt-C). NIST failed to obtain the required human subjects protection review until after the experiment. This review ensures the protection of human subjects in research and is required prior to starting the research.

“NIST regrets that its formal human subjects protection review occurred while the Tatt-C publications were being drafted and not prior to the start of the project as required,” NIST said.

Remy Cross is a sociology and criminology professor at Webster University. Cross has conducted research involving prisoners. He said prisoners, current patients and children require the greatest attention when dealing with informed consent.

“I have to meet a very high standard as a social scientist to be able to conduct research with prisoners through the National Institute of Justice and through the Department of Justice,” Cross said. “The problem is this research is coming out of [the Department of Commerce] which does not have the same understanding and the same duty to protection of these populations.”

NIST said after a full human subjects protection review was conducted, Tatt-C did not meet the criteria for human subjects research as defined by federal regulations. Since the general human subjects protection regulations did not apply, the section of the regulations related to prisoners also did not apply.  

Since the conclusion of Tatt-C, NIST said it hired additional human subjects protection experts and expanded and enhanced training for its staff. NIST began conducting Tattoo Recognition Technology Evaluation (Tatt-E) in 2016 as a continuation of Tatt-C, and plans to commence this fall.

Maass said he worries the reasons for incarceration are becoming more about data collection. He said he fears people will be incarcerated in order to get pictures of their tattoos or get their DNA.

“It’s really important that you realize that just because you’re arrested doesn’t mean you’ve actually committed a crime,” Maass said. “And yet by being booked into the system, you have all of those things robbed of you, your images relating to your body. But I think that with tattoos, there’s a lot of room for error in there and that it doesn’t serve the causes of justice.”

Cross said the belief that tattoos and criminality go hand in hand has been around for hundreds of years, and research shows it is not true.

“What you have here is myth and the Department of Commerce attempting to replicate the Soviet-era criminal tattoo tracking program, but using fancy technology for it and in the face of the fact that these tattoo tracking things are not proven to be very effective,” Cross said.

Cross said when someone gets a tattoo with criminal ties, it can be for a variety of reasons that are not criminal reasons. Other people have tattoos from a criminal past that they moved on from. Cross said this technology tries to assign people into different categories based on their tattoos without allowing them to explain their meaning for the tattoo.

Maas fears this technology will expand from solely being used in federal prisons.

“We’re not just talking about inmates,” Maass said. “We’re talking about potentially having this being used against immigrants, being used in deportation efforts, being used to add people to gang databases that even if they aren’t a gang member, being added to a database could follow them their entire lives.”

NIST’s original documents from Tatt-C mention how tattoos can identify a person’s ritualistic beliefs, religions and interests. After EFF questioned this profiling method, Maas said NIST retracted information about people’s beliefs from their papers, presentations and website.

Cross said this technology could potentially place innocent American citizens under surveillance because of their tattoos. These people do not get to know what category their tattoo places them in, or what assumptions are made from those categories. He said this situation could deny someone a federal position, chance for parole and other opportunities based on surveillance of their tattoo.

The tattoo recognition software is made up of algorithms created by outside companies like the MITRE Corporation. Cross said researchers argue algorithms cannot be biased, but Cross disagrees.

“Algorithms are made by people who put their own biases into these things when they say ‘It’s just tattoo recognition,’ yeah, but who’s putting the meaning in for these tattoos,” Cross said. “Somebody’s doing that and when they do that, they’re making assumptions about it, and because of that, the potential for harm is tremendous.”

Cross said some of the experts cited in NIST’s report are good at identifying tattoos for Hispanic and certain Chinese gangs, but they almost always miss nationalist gangs and one percenter motorcycle gangs. He said if this margin of error gets encoded into the algorithm, the algorithm will have higher hit rates on Asian and Latino suspects, but miss white supremacist, white nationalist and white biker gang suspects.

Cross worked on a surveillance project with a Department of Defense grant that aimed to assist police. The technology took audio and video from public places, and Cross found that some officers shared lewd images from the surveillance, or viewed it as a goldmine to gather information.

He found that engineers do not usually receive the same ethical training around human subjects as researchers or scientists. As a result, Cross said the engineers are not as focused on the potential harm their technology brings to the public.

“I think [NIST], as researchers, they need to take a hard look at how this kind of technology will be used to oppress people and then make a decision whether they want to be involved in that kind of research,” Maass said.

SOURCE: The Webster Journal

Mongols MC: Feds going after clubs colors at racketeering trial

Santa Ana, California. (October 31, 2018) BTN —The feds have called the Mongol Nation "the most violent and dangerous" biker gang in the country, and they're trying an unusual tactic to dismantle them: Stripping them of the trademarked patches that are prized by members and feared by rivals.

A racketeering trial is set to begin in Santa Ana, California, later this week — opening arguments begin Wednesday — in which prosecutors accuse Mongol Nation of operating as an organized criminal enterprise involved in murder, attempted murder, assault, drug-dealing and more.

The Feds are going after the Trademarked colors of the Mongols MC

And prosecutors want to force the organization to forfeit "any and all marks" that include the organization's logo — the word "Mongols" and a drawing of a Genghis Khan-styled rider on a motorcycle.

That caricature is serious business for the Mongols, court papers say.

Higher-ups in the estimated 600-person gang "will frequently bear patches that indicate that they are officers in the enterprise," and they earn those patches through violence and mayhem, prosecutors say.

"The Mongols Gang is a violent, drug trafficking organization that advocates and rewards its members and associates for committing violent crimes, including, and specifically, assaults and murders, on behalf of the gang and in order to promote what the gang terms 'respect,' prosecutors wrote in one court filing.

In another filing, they said the club's 'Mother Chapter' may award a specific Mongols member a 'skull and crossbones' or 'Respect Few Fear None' patch to those members who have committed murder or engaged acts of violence on behalf of the Mongols."

The Feds showing off motorcycles and colors they confiscated from the Mongols MC

The U.S. Attorney's Office for California's Central District has been trying to go after the patches for a decade. Then-U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien first announced the unusual legal bid after 79 members of the gang were indicted in 2008.

“If the court grants our request ... then if any law enforcement officer sees a Mongol wearing his patch, he will be authorized to stop that gang member and literally take the jacket right off his back," O'Brien said at the time, according to a McClatchy report.

But that bid and a later one got shot down in court. A federal appeals court gave prosecutors the green light to try again last year. Opening arguments are is set to begin for the expected eight week trial on Wednesday. Prosecutors say they expect to call 96 witnesses detailing the gang's criminal history.

Defense lawyers say the motorcycle group is simply a loose configuration of riders in the Southwest, not an organized criminal enterprise. They also maintain that the government doesn't have the right to seize the patches of members who haven't been involved in any criminal activity.

In court filings, the group's lawyers say they plan to call former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura as an expert witness on the group and its history. Ventura — also a former professional wrestler and actor — was a member of the the group in the 1970s. Defense lawyers also want to call journalist Lisa Ling, who interviewed the group for a CNN documentary in 2015, to testify about the "organization and structure of the club."

The government has objected to both Ventura and Ling being called as witnesses, saying neither is an expert.

SOURCE: NBC News

Bandidos MC: Maximum security prison only option for former member

Moncton, N.B. (October 30, 2018) —A “charismatic” former member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club serving a life sentence for a brutal Toronto-area murder has lost a bid to get out of the highest-security prison on the East Coast.

A New Brunswick judge has ruled that Randolph Brown — once connected to the Bandidos MV — will keep his new “maximum security” status and be housed at the Atlantic Institution near Renous, N.B.

Brown, 47, was handed a life sentence in 2008 with no parole eligibility until June 2016 after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

Confiscated vest with Bandidos MC colors 

He had spent much of his time at New Brunswick’s minimum-security Westmoreland Institution before being moved to the nearby medium-security Dorchester Penitentiary in 2017, and then to the Atlantic Institution in August 2018.

Brown, originally from Jackson’s Point, Ont., went to court to fight the reclassification.

Justice Denise LeBlanc of New Brunswick’s Court of Queens Bench described two sides of Brown in her ruling this month. Officials describe him as “charismatic and well-spoken,” with one saying she had always found him personable and easy to talk to. He was described as “a forthcoming and cognizant individual, someone who possessed the ability to succeed.”

But he was also an integral part of Dorchester’s “sub-culture activities, including intimidation, extortion, muscling, assault, trading in and possession and distribution of contraband/unauthorized items, possession of stolen property,” according to LeBlanc’s ruling.

Brown was seen on camera “collecting” items from other inmates, and head-butting another prisoner.

Corrections officials argued his transfer would alleviate “a major hold held over general population offenders and reducing the risk of creating either more associate participation or potential victims of the sub-culture hierarchy.”

The warden felt Brown had needs that required a highly structured environment, the judge said.

“In protecting the safety and security of the institution, I have no alternative but to approve the proposed involuntary transfer to higher security,” the warden said in a report.

In her ruling, LeBlanc said the warden’s decision was reasonable and justified, and she rejected Brown’s bid and ordered him to pay $750 in costs. Brown is one of four men who pleaded guilty in the 2005 death of Shawn Douse, a Keswick, Ont., drug dealer.

Another biker was upset that Douse had been selling cocaine to family members. Brown admitted he stuffed a T-shirt into Douse’s throat to kill him, after he was beaten unconscious.

Douse’s body was found in a Pickering, Ont., field on Dec. 8, 2005. He had been bound and gagged, with a bag over his head, and set on fire.

SOURCE: The Star

Man arrested over Hells Angels T-shirt wins hearing

Edmonton, Canada (October 29, 2018) BTN — A man arrested by security guards at West Edmonton Mall for refusing to remove a Hells Angels support T-shirt has won a hearing with the province’s law enforcement review board.

Paul Sussman claims Edmonton police officers who responded to his 2016 arrest did not take his complaint about the security guards’ conduct seriously, and that he was given the runaround when he later attempted to file a formal complaint.

The Alberta Law Enforcement Review Board (LERB) dismissed the police service’s attempt to have the complaint thrown out as frivolous and vexatious, and took the rare step of awarding Sussman $750 in costs before the matter goes to a full hearing.

Sussman was shopping with his teenage son at the mall on Aug. 28, 2016, when he was approached by mall security for wearing a Hells Angels “support T-shirt.”

Sussman was told to remove the shirt or leave because gang support paraphernalia is against mall policy. He was told if he did not leave he would be removed for trespassing.

Sussman refused because he believed the request was unlawful, the decision states. When security attempted to arrest him, he allegedly became “belligerent and aggressive” and resisted by linking arms with his son to avoid being handcuffed.

Security eventually took him to the ground, arrested him and took him to the mall security office. Two police officers arrived to deal with the case, though no charges were laid in the case.

The officers drove the man and his son to their car. During the ride, Sussman said he wanted to file an assault complaint against the guards but the officers “did not give him the form and did not take his complaint seriously” and told him instead to visit the west division police station.

Sussman went to the station the next day and told an officer at the front desk that he wanted to lay a complaint against mall security. According to the complaint, Sussman was wearing the same shirt and alleged the officer “refused” to help him.

“The appellant (Sussman) was of the opinion that it was because of his shirt,” the decision states. Instead, the west division officer told him to call the police complaint line. When he did, he was told to contact one of the officers who responded to the mall complaint.

Around a year later, Sussman filed formal complaints with city police, claiming the two mall officers and the west division officer failed to properly investigate his complaint. Police Chief Rod Knecht ordered investigations into the complaints but found there was no reasonable likelihood the officers would be convicted of misconduct.

The officer working at west division, however, was given a warning about “providing good customer service to citizens trying to report matters to the front counter.”

Sussman appealed the complaint to the LERB in April. Knecht and the police service sought to have it dismissed as “frivolous and vexatious” but the board disagreed.

The board also ordered each officer to pay Sussman $250, saying costs were warranted because their submissions failed to establish the complaint was made in bad faith and “attacked the appellant unnecessarily and on a personal level.”

The complaint will go to a hearing before the LERB, though no hearing dates have been set. The board hears appeals from both citizens and police officers outside of internal police complaints systems.

SOURCE: Edmonton Journal