FREE PRESS INVESTIGATION

This top cop ripped apart a Michigan town

He built a secret force, armed them with weapons. Now, ex-Oakley chief Robert Reznick may be headed to prison.

Oakley’s notoriety stretched across the state and nation, as news stories told of an outsize volunteer reserve police force, created by a polarizing chief — Robert Reznick.

He built a unique self-funded police department in the village, supported by donations from his volunteer cops, who gave thousands for the privilege but whose identities were long kept secret, drawing the ire of some residents and triggering years of litigation.

More: They look like cops, but they're not. And they're all over Michigan.

“Cop fights to keep his secret mercenary army,” read a Daily Beast headline in 2015. “150 cops, population 300: pay-to-play policing …” began a headline in The Guardian that same year. And in the Free Press: "Big controversy in tiny village: Why so many reserve cops?"

The typically peaceful community was split: Some Oakley residents wanted Reznick gone; others praised his good work...

https://www.freep.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/07/17/oakley-police-chief-robert-reznick/1549651001/

Data Company Directly Powers Immigration Raids in Workplace


| WNYC News | WNYC
Palantir, a secretive data-mining firm co-founded by Trump adviser Peter Thiel, is facing mounting criticism for its work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In response, the company has tried to distance itself from ICE’s controversial treatment of undocumented immigrants.

But now, emails obtained by WNYC show that Palantir software has directly powered ICE’s accelerating workplace raids.

In the final weeks of 2017, special agents in ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations’ division were planning a worksite blitz across New York City. As part of their preparation, an ICE supervisor notified staff that they needed to use a Palantir program, called FALCON mobile, for the operation.

“[REDACTION] we want all the team leaders to utilize the FALCON mobile app on your GOV iphones,” wrote the agent, after mentioning several “assignment” locations across all five New York City boroughs.


The email, obtained by WNYC under the federal Freedom of Information Act, continues: “We will be using the FALCON mobile app to share info with the command center about the subjects encountered in the stores as well as team locations."

FALCON mobile allows agents in the field to search through a fusion of law enforcement databases that include information on people’s immigration histories, family relationships, and past border crossings.

The email was sent in preparation for a worksite enforcement briefing on January 8, 2018. Two days later, ICE raided nearly a hundred 7-Elevens across the country, including at least sixteen in New York City. At the time, the raids constituted the largest operation against a single employer in the Trump era...

https://www.wnyc.org/story/palantir-directly-powers-ice-workplace-raids-emails-show/