Article Entry
21 Apr 2010
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Google Earth Used To Arrest Man Who Illegally Dumped Boat
Added by USGIF Category: Daily Intelligence Brief, General
Here’s a word to the wise when it comes to ditching an old boat, or car for that matter. Think twice. Google Earth is now being used by law enforcement for collecting evidence when it comes to dumping old “assets.” Last month, it was reported that a Florida deputy sheriff used a satellite image from Google Earth to track down the owner of a 1-ton boat who had illegally dumped it in a vacant lot. The suspect was arrested on a felony charge of littering more than 500 pounds of waste and faces a maximum penalty of $5,000 and five years in prison. So, if you are thinking about offloading that old broken down barnacle barge, rather than ditching it in a vacant lot, perhaps just give it to your brother-in-law?
Tags: GIS, Google, Google Earth, Google Earth and Ditched Boat, got geoint?, Imagery and Mapping, Spy Satellites, United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, Use of Google Earth By Law Enforcement, USGIF
This is a now a common application for online aerial photomaps. NearMap – http://www.nearmap.com – is being used by local governments across Australia to do that and much more.
They have higher resolution than Google and update capital cities in Australia every month, getting the imagery online within a couple of weeks. With monthly updates, you also also see change over time – very useful for government enforcement, compliance, asset management purposes.