Eduardo Guerrero, a Mexico City-based security consultant, wasn’t optimistic that technology alone can disrupt narcotraffickers.
“You should never underestimate the power of these guys,” Guerrero said. “They’re probably even aware of what’s going on here, and will figure out a way to use it to their advantage.”
Even Google’s Schmidt conceded that better use of information isn’t enough.
“I think at the end of the day, there really are bad people, and you have to go in and arrest them and kill them,” he said.
Check this out. It looks to me like Google is picking a fight with the cartels down south. lol Thanks to Borderland Beat for posting this story and this will be interesting to watch. Especially if they can actually come up with a sound anonymous tip line service that is completely safe and easy to use.
Google’s ideas include creating a network so citizens can safely report cartel activity without fear of retribution. It wants to make sharing real-time intelligence easier among police in different regions. It can identify how individuals are connected to each other, to bank accounts and even to corrupt government officials. It can create community Web platforms for citizens to share information and name and shame criminals.
‘Name and shame criminals’ or to ‘safely report cartel activity without fear of retribution’ would be a pretty big technological hit on the cartels. Let’s just hope that Google has posted close protection agents around those individuals tasked with coming up with this stuff. lol Because to the cartels, the weakest point and the easiest way to counter this stuff to them, is to kidnap the guys who figured it out and force them to give up the secrets. Or bribe, steal, or whatever. There are no rules with these guys, and everything is fair game.
Either way, I wish Google luck and I look forward to seeing these tools in action. –Matt
Google searches for ways technology can harness Mexico’s narcotraffickers, global crime
July 19, 2012
Google, so far, has won the search engine wars. Now it wants to target international crime, including Mexico’s powerful drug cartels.
Eric Schmidt, Google Inc.’s executive chairman, has taken a keen interest in Mexico, where more than 47,500 people have been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against the cartels in 2006. Schmidt recently visited most of Mexico’s most violent cities, Ciudad Juarez, where civic leaders asked if he could help.