Police are using fake Amazon boxes with GPS to catch thieves

ronjor · Dec 12, 2018

AJ Dellinger, @ajdell 12 Dec 2018

One package sat out for just three minutes before someone took the bait.
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mirimir · Dec 13, 2018

I wonder whether the DEA uses the same technology. That'd likely cost less than old-school surveillance.

guest · Apr 11, 2019

How Amazon Helped Cops Set Up a Package Theft Sting Operation
April 11, 2019
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/...d-cops-set-up-a-package-theft-sting-operation

In response to Amazon packages being stolen from people's doorsteps, police departments around the country have set up sting operations that use fake packages bugged with GPS trackers to find and arrest people who steal packages.
Internal emails and documents obtained by Motherboard via a public records request show how Amazon and one police department partnered to set up one of these operations.

The document claims that the Hayward Police Department Criminal Investigations Bureau, units form the Hayward Special Investigations Bureau, and Hayward Crime Analysis all assisted with Operation Safe Porch.
It also notes that the program was run four days a week, for 10 hours per day, and outlined the GPS, radio, and vehicles that were used in the program (including “an assigned undercover vehicle for surveillance and covert operations.”) [...]
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guest · Jul 9, 2019

Amazon Provided Police with 'Heat Maps' of Package Theft for Sting Operation
July 9, 2019
https://www.vice.com/amp/en_us/arti...aps-of-package-theft-for-sting-operation-cops

Amazon creates zip code-specific "heat maps" that show where the company has lost packages, and in at least one case, Amazon used these heat maps to help police plan a package theft sting operation.
“I hope the operation nets a lot of bad guys!” an Amazon Global Investigations Manager said in an email to two of his colleagues and an Albuquerque Police Department lieutenant.

Chris Gilliard, a professor of English at Macomb Community College [...] said in a phone call that Amazon has an incentive to sell Ring doorbells, but not necessarily an incentive to support ethical policing. By promoting Ring and partnering with police, Amazon is creating a vertically integrated company that delivers packages, but also has a built-in surveillance and policing network.

“Because there’s no transparency, we only have Amazon’s word that this map is accurate,”Gilliard said. “That’s really worrisome. It comes really close to the line with Amazon having a private police force.”

After Motherboard published that article, the company spokesperson asked us to change our headline ("How Amazon and the Cops Set Up an Elaborate Sting Operation That Accomplished Nothing").
"Your headline, especially by putting Amazon first even before the police department (!), is incredibly misleading and inaccurate," the spokesperson said.
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These operations serve as a de facto advertisement for Amazon. They cultivate a fear that one’s neighbors could steal a package, and they paint Amazon and Ring as entities that can help keep residents safe.

“You can see how the desire to sell a product is the overriding impetus for Amazon ‘crime prevention’ initiatives—essentially selling fear, and the fear of invasive others,” Gilliard said in a phone call. “It’s a way of getting more people to buy doorbells. That’s really disconcerting.”
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