This Youtube video link here is an simple "For Dummies" type explanation of how cell towers reveal location. Interesting and informative. Knowing just that much and nothing else to be learned by searching the web and finding a vast amount of info on how it all works there are obvious conclusions to be drawn.
One is that cell phone providers must know where a cell phone is at all times in order to direct a call to a single cell phone telephone number.
Duh! How much brain power does it take to figure that out if anybody thinks about it. The surprising thing is that few people do. If they did they would be asking more questions. They just take the cell phone for granted.
For those that do ask some questions there is some higher order thinking and analysis required.
If cell phone service providers know where every cell phone that is turned on is located.....
Then.......... (simple "If this"...then logically therefore "then that")
Cell phone providers could also know everywhere a cell phone has been if when present location changes to new location the old location is added to a history record of everywhere the cell phone has been. Maybe call that history record "The story of a wandering life" Your wanderings if the cell phone was in your pocket.
Not just where the cell phone has gone but how fast it went from point A to B.
And what exactly (or reasonable close by) were those points A and B, and just how fast did the cell phone go from one to the other, then point C, D, etc until letters run out and numbers have to be used. Way points in travel with geographic coordinates. The information could be retained for the lifetime of the cell phone. It appears on the cell phone bill as a general location of call origination. The cell phone provider knows exactly where.
What in the world might be done with all this information anyhow you might ask?
Excellent question, your brain is functioning. Now just use your imagination and "If, therefore...then this question.
Yabut....
It is private information about your/my cell phone!
Ok, what trumps privacy? What is an extreme example.
A person in the act of committing a self evident crime has little right to privacy in committing that crime even if they wear a mask while robbing a bank or shooting somebody.
Crime investigation is always an "after the fact" thing. That is a given and true statement, in my opinion.
Crime stopping, and apprehension while the crime is being committed is a real time intervention.
Crime Prevention is a before the fact (by any means) deterrent to future crime.
There are criminal and civil laws that apply to both types of crime. This link here explains the difference.
In the information age crime is increasingly becoming self evident and detectable in real time by technology methods. Consequently, that may also have a related increase in stopping crime in real time, while it is happening or reducing the time after the fact between committing the crime and apprehension or identification of suspects leading to apprehension.
For example: This situation may apply to people robbing banks but unfortunately does not yet apply to banks robbing people.
The window of time that the crime is being committed during which it can be detected and stopped in the act is a small one for masked bandit bank robbery stick up. A long window when the bank is the bandit. However when there is a long window of crime commission by an individual that is detectable in real time then there is significant opportunity to detect the crime in progress and prevent it.
After all this it is time to bring the subject of the post around to meet the divergence of thought to this point. It is a big circle. To demonstrate returning to the subject of the blog I will now revise the subject line to be:
How Cell Towers Can Reveal a Crime and Catch the Criminal in the Act?
Answer: By detection of intrusion into any area or at any speed Or from any point to another point that is a probable self evident of the commission of a crime of duration that gives sufficient time for law enforcement agencies to stop the crime while it is being committed.
Which situations might fit parameters that location, movement and speed detection based any single or combined detection indication of cell phone location, travel and speed by a cell phone tower would give probable cause for sounding an automatic alarm to law enforcement for immediate intervention to either stop a crime in progress or quickly apprehend a probable suspect after the fact?
In what context would it be appropriate to use cell tower location information related to a single cell phone that is also related to any general alarm caused by a specific probable criminal act in progress as determined by some degree of information evidence exceeding certain parameters that indicate a crime in progress?
The question I pose is not grounds for creating mass surveillance means and methods but using information produced by public utility to illuminate a crime in progress like lighting at night simply serves to illuminate a crime in a dark alley. Is that an appropriate comparison? Reasonable? Perhaps there is a better justification of using what is technologically available as a by product of its intended beneficial purpose?
To what extent might the public benefit of cell phone communication technology have specific spin off application to public safety and security?
What if banks used Femtocells which are just mini cell towers to sniff and record the cell phone ID's of anyone with a cell phone within the radius range of the interior of the bank? It is a doable thing. What if conditions of entry to the bank required patrons to submit to this information gathering the same as camera surveillance?
The local Bank of America has an armed guard dressed in black wearing a bullet proof jacket standing on the sidewalk at the bank entrance. If this level of security is necessary to protect the bank then why not an equivalent level of interior security?
When an presence of an armed guard outside the Bank of America is the subject of a comment on a date hook up site then it must be something of significant interest! Googling "Armed Guard in front of Bank of America" shows others are wondering about it. All 7 hits on this search in quotes. Without quotes there are a couple million hits. The Bank of America hits up front but use all the words of the search and what is to be the expected hit results? Because America. Bank of America is afraid of something. Might it be using technological cell phone surveillance outside the bank to discover who is passing by? This link provides that information service provided by Libelium.
Do security agencies offer femtocell security measures to banks or other high security areas that would benefit from knowledge of detected cell phone ID entering a specific area radius?
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