{"id":11820,"date":"2008-01-28T10:32:14","date_gmt":"2008-01-28T17:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/01\/28\/all-your-air-contamination-detectors-are-belong-to-us.html"},"modified":"2008-01-28T10:32:14","modified_gmt":"2008-01-28T17:32:14","slug":"all_your_air_contaminatio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/01\/28\/all_your_air_contaminatio.html","title":{"rendered":"All your air contamination detectors are belong to us!"},"content":{"rendered":"

At least that’s the case in New York City where the cops are afraid that people buying radiation detectors, chemical detectors, etc., are going to (some day) flood the police with (presumably) false alarms.  The NYPD’s solution?  You can’t have any such thing without a police permit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Say what?<\/p>\n

\n

Last week, Falkenrath made his case for the new law before the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, where Councilman Peter Vallone introduced the bill and chaired the hearing. Dozens of university researchers, public-health professionals, and environmental lawyers sat in the crowd, horrified by the prospect that if this law passes, their work detecting and warning the public about airborne pollutants will become next to impossible. But Falkenrath pressed on, saying that unless the police can determine who gets to look for nasty stuff floating in the air, the city would be paralyzed by fear.<\/p>\n

“There are currently no guidelines regulating the private acquisition of biological, chemical, and radiological detectors,” warned Falkenrath, adding that this law was suggested by officials within the Department of Homeland Security. “There are no consistent standards for the type of detectors used, no requirement that they be reported to the police department\u2014or anyone else, for that matter\u2014and no mechanism for coordinating these devices. . . . Our mutual goal is to prevent false alarms . . . by making sure we know where these detectors are located, and that they conform to standards of quality and reliability.”<\/p>\n

Vallone nodded his head, duly moved by Falkenrath’s presentation. Nevertheless, he had a few concerns. When the Environmental Protection Agency promised that the air surrounding Ground Zero was safe, Vallone said, independent testers proved that such assurances were utterly false. Would these groups really have to get a permit before they started working? “It’s a good question, and it has come up prior to this hearing,” Falkenrath replied. “What I can assure you is that we will look extremely carefully at this issue of the independent groups, and get the opinion of the other city agencies on how to handle that, and craft an appropriate response.” And if people use these detectors without a permit, Vallone asked, do we really have to put them in jail? Afraid so, Falkenrath answered.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Because, after all, you can trust the police and other city agencies to always protect you, always be responsive, never be subject to political pressures to put a happy face on problems (or deny they exist), and to have only the most scientifically and sensibly sound criteria for allowing you to do stuff.  Right?<\/p>\n

Yeesh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least that’s the case in New York City where the cops are afraid that people buying radiation detectors, chemical detectors, etc., are going to (some day) flood the police…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,9,6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeland-security","category-politics-law","category-science","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12375,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/05\/16\/voodoo_works.html","url_meta":{"origin":11820,"position":0},"title":"Voodoo works","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 16-May-08 7:35pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The new voice stress lie detectors (\"Voice Risk Analysis,\" or VRA) don't actually seem to do any better than chance in detecting lies -- but they do deter folks who...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50082,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/well-theres-another-reason-not-to-go-to-major-league-baseball-games.html","url_meta":{"origin":11820,"position":1},"title":"Well, there’s another reason not to go to Major League Baseball games","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 15-Apr-15 10:14am","format":false,"excerpt":"Not that I needed one. But having some fractional increase in my ticket go to pay for useless metal detectors, just so that MLB can look determined and counter-terrorismy? No thanks. https:\/\/www.schneier.com\/blog\/archives\/2015\/04\/metal_detectors.html 'It's an attitude I've seen before: \"Something must be done. This is something. Therefore, we must do it.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/CCQTVxOUIAA5HwU5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/CCQTVxOUIAA5HwU5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/CCQTVxOUIAA5HwU5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3558,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/28\/halloween_mater.html","url_meta":{"origin":11820,"position":2},"title":"Halloween material, indeed","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 28-Oct-02 6:34am","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure which aspect of this story is scariest: radioactive cat poop radiation detectors at the incinerator that they were able to track down whose cat poop it was...","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18447,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/08\/alarm-alarm.html","url_meta":{"origin":11820,"position":3},"title":"Alarm! Alarm!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Sep-10 9:19am","format":false,"excerpt":"So, right-smack-dab on the day that the insurance adjuster is coming out to check out the damage from last week's drainpipe problems, our Fire\/CO Detector\/Alarm for the basement went out. In fact, the unit is 7 years old, and most smoke detectors that use an ionizing detector are programmed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Home Improvement"","block_context":{"text":"Home Improvement","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/home-improvement"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/burglar-alarm.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11654,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/07\/25\/potpourri_for_the_feast_o-3.html","url_meta":{"origin":11820,"position":4},"title":"Potpourri for the Feast of Glodesind","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 25-Jul-07 2:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Who's St. Glodesind? Some Colorado activists are eagerly awaiting an overturn of Roe v. Wade.\u00a0 In fact, they want laws on the books, ready to be enforced, for that...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5483,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/03\/04\/what_are_we_sup.html","url_meta":{"origin":11820,"position":5},"title":"“What are we supposed to use — harsh language?”","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Mar-04 6:53am","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, with LRAD, yeah, that would be pretty effective. 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