Destroying public safety equipment/emergency vehicles is detrimental to the ability to provide the most basic life-saving assistance. From May thru the late summer of 2020, our capital city had police cars set ablaze, windshields smashed, doors repeatedly kicked, firefighters and EMS providers interrupted with violence while in or around their vehicles. Damaging this equipment has nothing to do with free speech or the right to assemble. Placing this equipment out of service for repair, or declared a total loss, leaves our most vulnerable citizens without timely protection. This behavior is felonious when it is less than $1,000 and should be made a class 6 felony.

I do not support any bills that criminalize folks

Comments Document

This written testimony expresses the Virginia State Firefighters Association support for HB 123, and provides insight to the risks and consequences that the bill is intended to prevent and deter.

Because EMS vehicles carry a number of very expensive medical equipment and drugs makes them prime targets for stealing and/or damaging EMS vehicles in order to gain access to steal these items. It does not matter how much damage is done in gaining access. The thief or perpetrator could very easily do $50,000.00 in damages and theft to an ambulance. Moreover, theft could occur to fire equipment by gaining access to compartments that carry small hand tools to large power tools that could bring a large price in the "hot" market for tools, etc. The need for a strong sentence for damage and theft from fire and EMS vehicles is needed to cut down on this. A major concern is the fact that during the course of a year it is not unheard of where an ambulance is stolen from the area of a hospital emergency department. The 3 agencies listed above ask that that this bill pass and the penalties be increased. Thank you.

Please move to report these bills out in respect and solidarity for trafficking victims. Thank you.

The majority of human trafficking investigations use electronic communication evidence. Therefore, this bill should be amended to include the following: Establish compulsory minimum training standards and annual certification for law-enforcement officers who deal with electronic evidence in the subject area of federal and state statutes derived from the Electronic Communications and Privacy Act. This includes electronic devices (cell phones, computers, tablets, routers, etc.), emails, text messages, private messages exchanged on apps (applications), social media sites (like Facebook), peer-to-peer file sharing, hash codes, NITs (Network Investigative Technique), IP addresses, internet routing, device IDs (phone numbers, IMSI, IMEI, TMSI, etc.), WIFI utilization, cell tower usage, cell tower emulators (Stingrays, etc.), and other forms of electronic evidence.

The Fop of Virginia supports HB 283 & HB 412. Training is the backbone of quality and professional law enforcement. We welcome this enhancement to the training of LEO’s. The FOP supports HB 750 to prohibit quotas for summons. The FOP opposes HB 870. Officer involved incidents is counterproductive for a proper and professional investigation of that specific incident if a time restriction is placed on the investigation. This bills also does not allow a provision if for instance, if the officer is incapacitated and unable to be questioned.

Internet Crimes Against Children, ICAC, officers have testified they have no training on Electronic Communications and Privacy Act law, yet all their cases deal with internet communications. My FOIA request to NOVA-ICAC confirms this. ICAC officers criminally violate Fourth Amendment ECPA statutes as follows: Officers intercept private communications by impersonating someone else or by creating an imaginary person using a picture of someone else. Illegally obtained private communications are disclosed and used at trial – felonies VA 19.2-62(A)(1,3,4), 18 USC 2511(1)(a,c,d), and identity theft 18 USC 1028. Officers unmask an anonymous online user’s identity by obtaining the suspect’s hidden IP address, then issuing a series of administrative subpoenas. This process requires a pen register warrant which they never obtain – VA 19.2-70.1-3, 18. USC 3121 The ICAC Cops Database inventories the content of people’s private computers, all without a warrant. It contains file names, IP addresses, dates and times of downloads, hash codes, and user information. This database is populated by breaking into online peer-to-peer bookkeeping files and stealing transactional records using tools like Torrential Downpour - 18 USC 2701 Hash codes are calculated from electronic communication content, are derived from content, uniquely identify or “fingerprint” content, and are entitled to the same privacy protections afforded to content of an electronic communication. Using hash codes to identify files and content a user has downloaded (child pornography) requires authorization to intercept content – felony VA 19.2-62(A)(1), 18 USC 2511(1)(a). Using hash codes beyond detecting transmission errors of a peer-to-peer stored communication system violates the Stored Communication Law - 18 USC 2701 When the ICAC database is updated, any new downloads of “bad” files are flagged and trigger an investigation. Officers use tools like Shareaza-LE to remotely break into a user’s password-protected computer at the specified IP address, searching it, downloading content without a warrant - VA 18.2-152.4(6) and 18 U.S. Code § 1030(a)(7). Since 1998, ICAC officers have illegally prosecuted over 8,100 Virginians. This totals about 25,000 felonies and 25,000 federal crimes committed by ICAC officers during these investigations and sting operations to protect imaginary children. Please train them on ECPA law so they might rescue a real child one day. Those they have illegally prosecuted should be exonerated.

Please move to report these bills out in respect and solidarity for trafficking victims. Thank you.

The Fop of Virginia supports HB 283 & HB 412. Training is the backbone of quality and professional law enforcement. We welcome this enhancement to the training of LEO’s. The FOP supports HB 750 to prohibit quotas for summons. The FOP opposes HB 870. Officer involved incidents is counterproductive for a proper and professional investigation of that specific incident if a time restriction is placed on the investigation. This bills also does not allow a provision if for instance, if the officer is incapacitated and unable to be questioned.