Posted on 02/13/2005 11:56:14 PM PST by ambrose
Electronic bug found in police station
State police are investigating the discovery of a listening device found in a clerical office at Providence police headquarters.
01:00 AM EST on Monday, February 14, 2005
BY GERALD M. CARBONE Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- A worker in Police Department headquarters found what is thought to be a sophisticated listening device covertly mounted beneath her desk, and the Rhode Island State Police are investigating whether someone was bugging the department.
According to police Sgt. Robert Paniccia, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, this is what happened:
Last Monday at 5:30 a.m., a civilian employee who transcribes handwritten police reports into a computer noticed a tiny canister magnetically mounted beneath her desk. The silver canister appeared to be made of stainless steel and was smaller than a dime.
The woman handed the canister to police Lt. John Kaya, who unscrewed it and discovered a battery, circuits, and what appeared to be a microphone. Kaya called in two sergeants from the road, and the sergeants agreed that it appeared to be a bugging device.
On Tuesday, the officers brought the canister to a Cranston man who sells electronic surveillance devices. "He verified what it was, and said he believed it has a 100-foot listening radius but it's so high-tech that he couldn't even get one if he had to," Paniccia said. "Which leads me to believe it's some sort of surveillance available only to a government agency -- Internal Affairs [a bureau of the Police Department], the FBI, the Justice Department -- I don't know."
On Friday afternoon, Paniccia, Kaya, and the union's vice president met with police Cmdr. Paul Kennedy, and they all agreed that the state police should try to learn who placed the device there and why.
"There's no markings on it -- no serial numbers, no dates," Paniccia said of the canister. "To our knowledge it's active, the batteries are active." Paniccia said he didn't know whether the device relayed sound to a place where someone could eavesdrop, or whether it recorded conversations.
"There may be a 100-percent legitimate investigation going on, and that may be a court-ordered thing," Paniccia said. "We don't want to impede a legitimate investigation."
On the other hand, Paniccia said, the FOP is concerned that the device may have been planted just to eavesdrop on officers as they casually discuss superiors and workplace conditions.
The device was discovered in what's called the "reports writing room," a small first-floor office where workers from an outside agency meet with police officers to transcribe written reports to a computer.
Paniccia said the room had been used in the past as a conference room where lawyers interviewed clients, and police spoke with victims of sexual assaults. "It's a closed room, and [police] expect privacy when they get in there," Paniccia said.
The reports office also abuts the lobby where the public speaks to police officers through plexiglass windows, well within the device's presumed 100-foot listening range.
This may be the third time in the past six years that police officers have come under covert surveillance in the workplace. Two years ago this month, the police discovered that a powerful computer was secretly taping virtually every phone call made to and from the new Police Department and Fire Department headquarters; and in 1999, an officer cleaning a clock in a police substation found a video camera hidden in the clock face.
The computer taping system discovered in 2003 cost more than $900,000, recorded hundreds of police and fire department phone lines, and could store thousands of hours of calls for later retrieval. An internal auditing group discovered the system in February 2003, leading to an ongoing civil lawsuit filed by firefighters, and the dismissal of three top administrators in the communications department.
The Rhode Island State Police also investigated the installation of the computer taping system, but no criminal charges were filed in that case.
Col. Dean M. Esserman, the chief of police, did not comment on the discovery of the latest apparent bugging equipment yesterday. Esserman did release a memo that he wrote Friday, confirming the meeting between FOP members and Commander Kennedy. "The Administration takes this matter extremely seriously and will cooperate fully and expects all members of this Department to do the same," Esserman wrote.
Mayor David N. Cicilline issued a statement last night backing Esserman's handling of the matter.
"I'm pleased that Police Chief Dean M. Esserman acted so quickly and asked the Rhode Island State Police to investigate this matter immediately upon learning about the device from the Fraternal Order of Police," Cicilline said. "I take this matter very seriously, as does the police chief, and I have every confidence that he'll get to the bottom of this."
State police Lt. John Lafreniere confirmed yesterday that the state police were investigating "an incident at the Providence Police Department" but would not comment further.
Paniccia said he snapped photographs of the bugging device that could be released today or tomorrow.
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Interesting article, thanks for the good read..
BTTT
That $900k computer that recorded phone systems was not PD-owned? Who has the smarts and the bucks to just install one of them somewhere? Gotta be the FBI, a la Philadelphia last year or so.
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