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Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by DickingAround on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @11:01AM (#11862678)
And the scanner maker gets a 7% cut. What could go wrong: "the state is paying ERAD Group Inc., $5,000 for the software and scanners, then 7.7 percent of all the cash the highway patrol seizes"
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by mcphage on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @01:02PM (#11863716)
> And the scanner maker gets a 7% cut.

And if the courts decided that the asset forfeiture was incorrect and reimburse the person it was stolen from—does the scanner maker still keep their cut? Or are they still due their cut?

Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by dawnerd on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @01:40PM (#11864018)
Wouldn't be surprised if the tax payers end up taking the hit there. Highly doubt the company would.
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by ihsw on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @02:36PM (#11864460)
They keep their cut.

This is probably why it is incredibly difficult to dispute it and the police will put up every roadblock to stop you.

Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by jsprogrammer on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @01:53PM (#11864118)
Highwaymen don't go away, they just get new uniforms and tools.

Particularly egregious is Lt. Vincent's take:

>"If you can prove can[sic] prove[sic] that you have a legitimate reason to have that money it will be given back to you. And we've done that in the past," Vincent said about any money seized.

Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by sametmax on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @02:03PM (#11864186)
Another polite way of stating "guilty until proven innocent" with the added twist of "punished in any case". That is seriously messed up.
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by xviia on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @04:41PM (#11865473)
In other words, "if we think you could sue us and set a precedent, we will give you your money back. But if you're poor, we won't respond to your phone calls."
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by redditplebs on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @12:23PM (#11863362)
Time to lookup ERAD Inc. online. Fun times ahead!
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by toomuchtodo on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @12:24PM (#11863376)
I'm already spinning up a comprehensive FOIA request with MuckRock.com. Feel free to reply to my comment if anyone would like to collaborate.
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by chiph on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @03:58PM (#11865143)
Can you include something like this?

"What states does ERAD currently have contracts with? With what states does ERAD anticipate contracts to be signed in the next 180 days, and for all of these states, what percentages will ERAD be earning on funds seized?"

Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by toomuchtodo on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @05:21PM (#11865761)
I'd need to FOIA every police department in order to do this :/ Not scalable. I can create a template that can be used whenever its discovered which police departments are using their services.

I'm in touch with the news station that has the contract, so I should be able to get it without an additional FOIA request. Once I have that, I'll recurse further if necessary.

Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by swiftDaemon on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @12:41PM (#11863532)
I'd love to see what progress you make with this
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by ipsin on Thursday June 09, 2016 @01:36AM (#11867733)
I'm interested in three things:

1) ERAD training materials disseminated to law enforcement agencies (LEAs).

2) Correspondence between those LEAs and DHS, or occurring in DHS forums, regarding ERAD technology.

3) DHS reports, studies or memoranda mentioning ERAD usage in the field by DHS or any other agency.

I figure DHS Science & Technology Directorate might not be the right target. Should I just aim at DHS directly, or is there a specific group that would handle those connections between DHS and other law enforcement?

Should I structure this as three separate requests?

Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by codewritinfool on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @12:51PM (#11863609)
Thank you for this
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by fapjacks on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @03:21PM (#11864847)
Yes, please. Thanks.
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by daveloyall on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @04:40PM (#11865470)
With luck, you'll get in touch with me on the right afternoon, and I'll immediately put plenty of energy into this.
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by pc86 on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @02:19PM (#11864327)
Absolutely
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by daveloyall on Wednesday June 15, 2016 @11:38AM (#11909955)
Don't forget!
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by eloisius on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @05:07PM (#11865680)
I'd like to see what you come up with.
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by etrautmann on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @02:23PM (#11864364)
thank you
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by swiftDaemon on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @12:45PM (#11863559)
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by DarkLinkXXXX on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @03:36PM (#11864966)
I found their website, and a page describing the service I believe these police are using. https://www.erad-group.com/fci

Also, I noticed that site:www.erad-group.com doesn't return anything on google, but it does on other search engines. Did ERAD request that it be removed from search results? Why would they do that? Why would they also not have a robots.txt if that is the case?

Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by singlow on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @03:58PM (#11865139)
From their html source:

  <meta name="robots" content="noindex" />
  <meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOINDEX, FOLLOW" />
  <meta name="ROBOTS" content="INDEX, NOFOLLOW" />
  <meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW" />
Not sure what they are intending here. But my guess is they don't either.

[edit: submitted too soon by mistake]

Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by tremon on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @04:05PM (#11865206)
I think they mean that case-sensitive crawlers are disallowed, and they reserve the right to arbitrarily sue case-insensitive crawlers under the CFAA.
Re:Police use new device to seize money in bank accounts or ... by Mtinie on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @12:23PM (#11863370)
Ugg...that's a super evil version of the classic "razor blade" business model.