polk county

School iris-scanned students without telling parents

There's a quaint concept that seemingly every technology company dismisses as outdated.

It's called opting in.

Should you not be familiar with it, it's the notion that you ought to choose before, say, all the people in your address book are contacted by a company they've never heard of.

And wouldn't it be lovely to have a choice over whether your kids should have their irises scanned, as they get on their school bus?

The parents of around 750 kids in several Florida schools never got that choice -- because of what might be politely … Read more

Man googles self, finds out he's murder suspect

If we want to find out what the world thinks about us, we google. There, we find every reference to our delicate beings. Well, every reference that we can't find on Facebook.

Please imagine, then, the mental entertainment that played itself out behind Zachary Garcia's forehead, when he googled himself and happened to notice that he was being accused of murder.

No, he was not being accused by some crazy former lover or fellow University of Florida student attempting to enter the Prankdom Hall of Fame.

It was the Polk County Sheriff's Office, which reportedly mistakenly released … Read more

Drug cops caught playing Wii during raid

It's not easy being a drug cop.

You're constantly dealing with characters who can be less savory than mud pie. And then you discover that some of these people have vast amounts of money.

Who amongst us would not, therefore, in the midst of a raid on a suspected drug dealer's house, avail himself of the suspect's loot? Consider, for instance, the suspect's Wii.

In some highly entertaining footage from WFLA Tampa, cops appear to have been caught red-fingered by a security camera they missed in the home of Michael Difalco, an alleged drug dealer … Read more

Another sheriff goes after Craigslist

Grady Judd, the sheriff for Polk County in Florida, has followed in the anti-Craigslist footsteps of Cook County, Illinois, counterpart, Tom Dart.

In a sweep imaginatively titled "Operation Hot Date," the sheriff's forces arrested 28 women for allegedly advertising prostitution services on Craigslist.

The Smoking Gun quoted the sheriff as declaring that the site is still a "one-stop shop for all your prostitution needs."

I was not aware that there are other shops that require several stops to achieve similar ends, as it seems that local newspapers and other Web sites seem to offer ads … Read more