Is Middletown's Version of Big Brother Tracking Your Cell Phone ?

Last week BlueJersey posted a slightly misleading blurb about how, according to the ACLU, police departments in New Jersey were tracking cell phones without warrants. The post listed 50 police departments from around the State that allegedly were illegally tracking the cell phones of local residents. Middletown's police department was one of the 50 on the list, which intrigued me. So I dug a little deeper by following the hyperlink to the ACLU's report to see what it was all about.

What I found out was that the American Civil Liberties Union "filed over 380 requests in 31 states with local law enforcement agencies large and small to uncover when, why and how they are using cell phone location data to track Americans". The results from these requests varied greatly and is a cause for concern for privacy advocates. All but 10 out of 200 responding police departments stated that they track cell phones in some capacity and it was found that most police departments do not usually obtain warrants before tracking cell phones.

After reading this I jumped over to the section of the report that pertained to the 50 police departments in New Jersey.  I found that the reason why these particular 50 were chosen was for no other reason other than, they were the 50 largest police departments in the state and not because they were suspected of wrong doing.

Each of the 50 police departments were sent an identical Cell Phone Tracking Information Request Letter (this is Middletown's) seeking information on how each department gathers cell phone data, all but 4 (Bayonne, Edison, Jersey City and Union City) responded. 

Besides Middletown's response, I also read the responses East Brunswick, Howell, Jackson, Lakewood, Newark and Old Bridge.

There is a lot that can be said after reading the various responses above but I'm fairly convinced that a vast majority of residents living in Middletown,as well as around the state, have little to fear at the moment from Big Brother. There seems to be general proceedures in place that would safeguard against unnecessary phone tracking


However that may not be always be the case.


 In most instances, nearly 3/4 of the questions asked by the ACLU went unanswered due to the lack of a policy concerning cell phone tracking or adequate record keeping.

According to Middletown's response,the last known case in which they tracked a person's cell phone was in 2008. I find that a little hard to believe considering other towns had shown that such information as recently as last year.

That being said, I won't lose to much sleep at the moment worring about who is looking at my phone records. It may be a big issue in parts of the country,but for right now I have nothing to fear and neither do fellow Middletowners, we all seem safe from the prying eyes of Big Brother,

LD12 Senate candidate Brown calls on opponent Thompson to apologize for anti-police comments

NEWS RELEASE
September 13, 2011

Old Bridge – State Senate candidate Bob Brown, a retired police officer who was shot in the line of duty, is calling on his opponent in the November election to apologize to law enforcement officials for a disparaging comment he made last week about retired police. Assemblyman Sam Thompson, the Republican nominee for Senate in Legislative District 12, was replying to a call from Brown to forgo his public pension while he accrues a salary as a legislator, a practice known as “double dipping.”

In reference to Brown’s criticism of Thompson’s double dipping, the Assemblyman said to PolitickerNJ.com that Brown should “look at all his fellow law enforcement officers who retire and take a second career. Is he bothered by that?” (Source: PolitickerNJ)

“First Sam Thompson refuses to stop abusing New Jersey taxpayers by double dipping, taking both a public pension and public salary. Now, he has insulted police officers everywhere by comparing his selfish actions to their struggle to put food on their families’ tables,” said Brown, who went to law school after becoming permanently disabled because of a gunshot wound. “Police officers put their lives on the line every day to keep us all safe. Thompson owes all of them an apology.”

Thompson continues to receive both his salary and pension, totaling over $100,000 per year, despite calls from Brown to stop collecting one of the other. Brown currently receives a disability pension and has pledged not to collect it if he is elected to the State Senate.

Bob Brown Back on Strategy Room This Morning At 11:00

Old Bridge attorney and former Democratic candidate for NJ Legislative District 13, Robert"Bob" Brown will make another appearance this morning at 11:00 am on Fox News's online web program "The Strategy Room".

This marks the 14th time Bob has been a guest on the show.

During the 11:00 hour Bob will be joining host Lis Weilh and fellow guests Psychiatrist Dr. Dale Archer (DrDaleArcher.com) and Personal Injury Attorney Keith Sullivan to discuss "Cops and Cases"

If you have the time to tune in you should check out the show. Anytime Bob Brown has made an appearance on the show it has always been a lively and interesting discussion that has lead to some insightful T.V.

Bob Brown Back On Strategy Room This Morning At 11:00

Former Democratic Candidate for the 13th legislative District, Bob Brown, will be making another appearance on the Fox News online web program, The Strategy Room, this morning at 11 am.

This will be Brown's first appearance on the show since the November 3rd election and should be interesting to hear his insights about the before going on to discuss the days topic for which he is a panelist for.

Bob Brown,is a retired Old Bridge NJ police office who was shot in the line of duty and who now pratices, law will make his 10th appearance on the program and will be discussing with other panelist "Cops and Cases".

Campaign Video For Bob Brown, Candidate for Assembly Dsitrict 13, Is On The Web

Democratic candidate for State Assembly, Robert "Bob" Brown, is an attorney and retired Old Bridge police officer who was wounded in the line of duty. He is running in the 13th district against Republican incumbents Sam Thompson and Amy Handlin.

He has a short biographical campaign video that has recently been posted on the web, you can watch it below:



To learn more about Bob Brown and his runningmate, Middletown's Jim Grenafege, and the issues that they will be fighting for check out their website www.assembly13.org