[caymanjim]

This isn't the best case to use as an example of police overreach and information dragnets. Yes, they arrested the wrong guy and held him for a week, but the right guy was using the wrong guy's car. I realize they initially identified him--at least in part--via the Google-provided information, but the reason they held him for a week is because it was his car that was used to commit the crime. At that point, it was absolutely reasonable and correct to assume that he was the perpetrator. If that hadn't been the case, they probably would have questioned him and never even arrested him.

I'm not defending Google's information collection or the use of dragnets in general, but this is absolutely the wrong case to use as an example of how things can go wrong. Things did not go wrong here. This was good police work, and ultimately the arrest was not off-base, and led directly to the real perpetrator.

Find a better example if you want to drum up fear about information abuse.

[slenk]

It says in the story in the surveillance they can't make out the plates, so they don't know for sure it was his car.