Urban Shield Trust Fund paid for trips to Israel, parking tickets and paint jobs

 police militarization  3 Responses »
Mar 242018
 
On July 31, 2007, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors approved the establishment of “a cash fund in which to deposit donations, sponsorship and exhibitor fees and make payments for associated costs;” for Urban Shield.
Expenses and revenues for that trust fund were received in response to a public records request to the Alameda County Sheriff.
In 2008 and 2009, the Urban Shield trust fund lists $7,634 for legal expenses. However, the nature of those expenses was redacted by the Alameda County Sheriff.
Two round trip tickets to Israel were expended from the Urban Shield trust fund in 2008, but there was no information on who traveled to Israel. In 2010, nearly $75,000 was spent from the Urban Shield trust fund on travel to Israel and Jordan. Travelers included Undersheriff Rich Lucia, Assistant Sheriff Brett Keteles, and Assistant Sheriff Dennis Houghtelling. There was an additional expense of $1,076 for “presentation material for the King of Jordan.’
In March 2011, the Urban Shield trust fund paid for at least two parking citations in Oakland.
In October 2012, the Urban Shield trust fund paid $9,000 to paint humvees, probably the two Alameda County Sheriff humvees with mounted machine guns shown here:
San Francisco Police Department at Urban Shield in 2012
From 2010 to 2016, Urban Shield spent $112,723 on customized Urban Shield coins.
Urban Shield challenge coin
In 2016, the Urban Shield trust fund paid the $500 deductible for a car hit during Urban Shield.
Revenue for Urban Shield comes from vendors at the event and sponsors looking to sell their products to law enforcement.
The largest single contributor was defense contractor BAE with $120,000 in 2009.
Motorola has contributed $74,000 over the years. FLIR Systems has contributed $46,000 over the years.
Other large contributors include Verizon Wireless ($22k), Taser ($38k), Tactical Command Industries ($30k), Sig Sauer ($31k), San Francisco Police Credit Union ($34k), L.N. Curtis and Sons ($45k), Adamson Police Products ($30k) and Corizon ($24k), the controversial provider of health care services at Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail.
Blackwater Training Center contributed $10k in 2008.
Facebook, which has been in the news recently for its leaks of data on millions of people, contributed a total of $20,000 in 2015 and 2016.
Sources:

Harris’ Aerial Surveillance System Demonstrated at Urban Shield 2015

 Video surveillance  No Responses »
Oct 252016
 

Harris Corporation demonstrated its CorvusEye aerial surveillance system at the annual Urban Shield event organized by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office in 2015. The aerial surveillance system was used as part of a water supply sabotage scenario at Dunsmuir Reservoir in Oakland.

The CorvusEye aerial surveillance system was developed by defense contractor Exelis, which Harris Corp. purchased in 2015. According to Harris’ web site, CorvusEye can provide continuous monitoring and tracking over a 2.7 square mile (7 square km) are during the day and 1.2 square miles (3.1 square km) at night.

Harris’ CorvusEye is a competitor to the system marketed by Persistent Surveillance Systems, which has been used to secretly monitor Baltimore and Compton, in Los Angeles County.

The surveillance footage provided by Harris Corp. to Urban Shield included Dunsmuir Reservoir, Interstate 580, Dunsmuir House and residential areas of Oakland and Sheffield Village. In an email dated September 9, 2015, a Harris Corporation marketing manager describes the video as “a live view of the reservoir showing 5 terrorists moving around on the reservoir.”

Harris CorvusEye

Click here for the video provided by Harris Corporation.

Harris also made a pitch for providing security for Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium:

Obviously, our team is interested in having CorvusEye help out with Super Bowl security. We’d love to sit down with him and his team to demo the footage we captured last month…is there any way you can make an introduction for us and perhaps set up quick 10-15 minute meeting to introduce him to CorvusEye?

A lieutenant from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office responded with an offer of help:

I will do whatever I can to get you guys into the presentation on the Super Bowl. The folks from Santa Clara and Levi stadium will be at the VIP dinner Friday night. I will be there as well. Although I have not met these folks myself, let’s team up and track them down for a conversation! I have your back!

The details of how the CorvusEye surveillance systems works are explained in this video, produced by Exelis:

The annual Urban Shield event is an opportunity to introduce weapons, technology, and products developed for military and intelligence application to local law enforcement agencies.

Source material: Emails between Harris Corporation and Alameda County Sheriff’s Office