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Blog, Criminal, Legal News

To fight crime, Miami-Dade may deploy blanket surveillance from the air

BY DOUGLAS HANKS

dhanks@miamiherald.com

Miami-Dade police may deploy sophisticated aerial surveillance capable of photographing everyone outside for 32 square miles in an effort to track vehicles and individuals involved in crimes.

The proposal, first reported by the Miami New Times, would send a surveillance plane high above high-crime neighborhoods to film everything below, according to Lt. Juan Villalba Jr. Already used in Baltimore, the technology lets police pull footage after a crime occurs and try to recreate where the perpetrators came from on their way to the scene and where they fled to afterward.

“It’s kind of like a DVR,” Villalba said, referring to playing back television shows hours after they air. “This will allow us to go back and look at what happened.”

Already used in Baltimore and other cities, the technology has helped spark a national debate on civil liberties as it pushes the edge of what’s possible now in mass surveillance. The camera system tracks how the U.S. pursued suicide bombers in Iraq, and the American Civil Liberties Union has called it “terrifying” for the potential to record every citizen’s movement when he or she is visible from the sky.”

“This is not the way to adopt public policy — no system of surveillance should be put into place until it is first established that there is a need which this system addresses, and that there are protections in place for the privacy of the people of Miami-Dade County,” the ACLU’s Florida said in a statement Thursday from executive director Howard Simon. “Until these protections for the rights and privacy of the people of Miami-Dade County are put into place, the grant request should be withdrawn.”

With increasingly cheaper surveillance cameras already mounted on lampposts, buildings, traffic lights and homes throughout Miami-Dade — not to mention the prevalence of cellphone footage — the sophisticated aerial surveillance arrives at a time when people are used to being recorded when they leave home.

Full Read – http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article153901379.html

Blog, Business Law, Legal News, Personal Injury

Judge tosses $1 billion taxi lawsuit over Uber law

BY DOUGLAS HANKS

dhanks@miamiherald.com

The taxi industry’s legal challenge over Miami-Dade’s Uber law hit a roadblock this week after a judge declared the year-old county law a reasonable attempt to regulate the taxicabs’ new competitors.

“Taxicabs have not, for now, become obsolete,” U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles wrote in an opinion released Monday. “As with all services and industries, markets ebb and flow, and change requires adaptation and innovation.”

The decision granting Miami-Dade’s request for dismissal of the lawsuit billed as seeking $1 billion in damages comes nearly a year after taxi companies filed the long-shot court challenge a day after the County Commission passed an ordinance legalizing Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing services.

The phone-based ride companies have devastated taxi industries around the country by tapping modern technology and a fleet of freelance drivers that usually charge less than taxis, and by offering an easier booking process. Taxi leaders warn Miami-Dade’s decision threatens the very existence of the tourism economy’s taxi industry, a service still sought after by some visitors and many low-income residents without the credit card or cellphone needed to “call an Uber.”

In suing Miami-Dade, taxi companies Miadeco, Checker and B&S Taxi touched on many of the same points made in their arguments to commissioners before the law passed.

One was unfair treatment: Ride-hailing companies, for example, can raise prices as high as they want while taxi fares are capped by county rules. Another argument centered on the economics of taxi ownership: The county-issued licenses (known as “medallions”) that allow a cab to operate plummeted in value on the resale market once Uber came to Miami-Dade in 2014. Taxi owners say they deserve compensation.

Courts have dealt with similar arguments around the country, and Uber and its allies almost always emerge the victor. Gayles cited similar cases in tossing Miadeco vs. Miami-Dade, saying the law allows competition to disrupt well-established industries.

“Plaintiffs’ property rights derived from their medallions do not confer on them a fully restricted market or a monopoly of all for-hire transportation,” Gayles wrote.

Ralph Patino, the Coral Gables lawyer who filed the suit and sought to represent about 2,000 Miami-Dade holders of taxi licenses, was not immediately available for comment. At a press conference announcing the suit on May 4, Patino said he planned to ask for $1 billion in damages tied to lost business and diminished value on behalf of the county’s taxi industry.

Michael Hernández, communications director for Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, hailed the decision as a win for consumers.

“Mayor Gimenez and a majority of county commissioners supported providing our residents and visitors with mobility options,” he wrote. “We are happy the court agreed with our arguments.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article144223529.html#storylink=cpy