A four year old video from Wi-Fiber Technology does not even come close to telling the whole story of how law enforcement and Fusion Centers can use this product to secretly monitor Americans.
At approximately the 1 minute mark of the above video, Wi-Fiber offers a glimpse into how government agencies use their product to “improve public safety and emergency response in real-time.”
A look at Wi-Fiber’s website reveals next to nothing about how their “Self-Forming, Modular, Autonomous, Real-Time, Turn-Key” (S.M.A.R.T.) product is used. Which opens up a ton of questions.
Readers are left guessing as to how and why law enforcement would want to use S.M.A.R.T. until you start to read between the lines.
You see, S.M.A.R.T. is really just an acronym for smart cities and everything it entails. Wi-Fiber uses Smart Mesh, Edge Computing, Inter-Operability, Visualization, Cloud and G.A.R.I.2. The G.A.R.I.2 PowerPoint Presentation reveals exactly why police are so excited to purchase Wi-Fiber.
All of these smart city devices are designed to do two things, be accessible by one platform and provide intelligence in real-time. As Canton, Ohio Police Chief Jack Angelo said, “the more and more we dug into it, we saw that it was going to be probably more of a cost-effective solution.”
A recent Columbus-Dispatch article was a little more revealing.
“Wi-Fiber technology has proven more useful to police than the ShotSpotter system it replaced, “We get a lot more out of cameras and license plate reading than we do out of the shot detection,“ Chief Angelo said.”
How are police departments getting more intelligence out of Wi-Fiber than license plate readers and ShotSpotter? Because Wi-Fiber allows law enforcement to use CCTV cameras in ways they could only dream about years ago.
“We’ve had alerts on stolen cars from the license plates readers, even able to follow the cars on the cameras, and we’re able to make arrests without pursuits,“ Angelo said.
Chief Angelo also mentioned that they used Wi-Fiber to monitor protesters “at a distance for a less visible police presence.” But would not get into specifics, because as he put it “they’re still going through the justice system.”
Could the reason he refused to divulge more specifics be that the Canton Police Department is using Wi-Fiber to illegally monitor innocent people? Or could it be that he does not want the public to know that the Department of Justice is funding public surveillance through “Project Safe Neighborhood” (PSN) grants? Both are questions that need to be answered.
Read more: Wi-Fiber Tech Drives Ultimate SMART City Surveillance Systems
