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"Computer Glitch" Responsible For 50 Raids On Retirees' Home 38

Posted by samzenpus from the we'll-get-right-on-it-mam dept.
The address of Walter and Rose Martin's Brooklyn home was used by police to test a department-wide computer system in 2002. That decision has resulted in over 50 raids on the Martin's home in the last 8 years. Police come looking for all manner of violent criminals as often as three times a week. NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne says the police have now flagged the Martin's address so no officer will be sent to the home without double-checking the address first. Rose Martin remains skeptical, saying, "It seems like too simple a correction for something that has been going on for eight years."

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"Computer Glitch" Responsible For 50 Raids On Retirees' Home More

"Computer Glitch" Responsible For 50 Raids On Retirees' Home

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  • The Dept of Homeland security does not make mistak (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Why do all these terrorists go on about the evils of the military police state. These officers are perfectly good examples of caring government officials doing that they are told to do. It is obvious to me at least, that these old folks were up to something nefarious. It is a well know technique to send out false information to the media (truth is malleable) in order to get the criminal terrorists of their guard.

    I am perfectly happy letting the military police state take over even more basic functions,

    • I love your sarcasm, but your English teachers were probably all happy when you left. I mean really, "rights of the week", who writes that, and for gods sake, to do it in public, what were you thinking!

      • I don't understand your complaint. This week, March 21-27, the right-of-the-week is the right to indulge in bad spelling and grammar.

        Next week it's eating nachos while wearing unlaundered trackpants.

  • Yeah, yeah, who else?

    But seriously, how hard is it to wipe your database before going live?

    • Harder than not testing with real (as opposed to realistic) data in the first place, or so it would seem.

      http://www.snopes.com/business/consumer/bastard.asp [snopes.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sjames ( 1099 )

      Or use an amusing fake address like 1313 Mockingbird lane rather than a real one for testing purposes.

      • 123 Fake Street. Waitasec, that one existed... but led to an arrest, so it's ok I guess.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sjames ( 1099 )

          It is a good idea to make sure the "fake" address is actually non-existent :-).

          • Why? It's more entertaining to make it a real one. If you manage to keep an eye on it, too, you also get a good heads-up when someone's coming for you.

      • Depending on the integration between the system and their database of city addresses, it was probably non-trivial to test the entire system with a non-existent address. Do you skip testing the address verification, or do you add fake addresses to the database?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sjames ( 1099 )

          You find the address of that asshole middle manager who thinks he's actually better than everyone else and test with that :-)

      • 1060 W. Addison

        • 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

          Let the cops raid that one a few times, see what happens.
          There's a black family living there but they don't take no shit from cops.
          He's the kind of man that would say 'Do you know who I am? I'll have your badge!' with enough authority that the cops would back down, I betcha.

  • It could be worse (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The Martins should be glad they're not black or latino.
    • True, they would both be dead by now, or one dead and the other in prison for life because the cops framed her for killing him after they killed him.
  • The computer is happy. :D
    The computer is crazy. :3
    The computer will help you become happy. :D
    This will drive you crazy. <_>

  • They actually have a real emergency at their home, is the police going to double check the address before sending someone over?

  • The Computer is infallible, citizens. Now maybe a good round of our fight song will cheer us up!

    Sing with me:

    Mine eyes have seen the coming of another commie horde...

  • ...no officer will be sent to the home without double-checking the address first...

    ...should the couple ever want to start Breaking Bad [wikipedia.org]...

  • Damn bugs. Always screwing up the teletype.
  • The police. It seems relatively obvious that it was the municipal IT department or the software company that wrote the dispatch system, which is at fault here. But let's all jump on the Police officers' cause that's who gets blamed for everything. Damn Cops! Let's not consider that they probably were dispatched to the address and had no choice but to go. If police officers could just not go to a dispatched call because they thought it might be erroneous based on the address and there was a real emergency th

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