AirTags, a lawyer, and a French press: track how nasty Portland is to its homeless
With the introduction of its tiny AirTags, Apple opened the Pandora's box of personal tracking devices usage. We already explained you the shaky precautions that Apple took to prevent using the AirTags for nefarious purposes, yet they can also be used for a good cause.
The latest case in point is one Michael Fulle, a lawyer from Portland, who used the power of AirTags tracking to prove that the city is dumping possessions of homeless people on the trash pile against its own laws, all the while it claims that the sweeps are done within the legally required respect for private property.
Mr Fuller defends the homeless encampment in local Laurelhurst Park, so when the municipality tasked its city contractor Rapid Response Bio Clean to sweep the park, he put 16 Apple AirTag trackers on objects that belonged to homeless people living in the tents there.
Lo and behold, despite the city's requirement to store each item which is "recognizable as belonging to a person and that has apparent use" for 30 days following a homeless area sweep, some of the tracked objects ended up in waste management facilities.
Thus, stuff like paintings or a French press was discarded despite the law that requires only objects that are "unsanitary or have no obvious use" to end up in the trash.
"I practically begged the city not to move forward with the sweep to make sure property wasn't being destroyed, and the city ignored me," said Mr Fuller. "Now there's going to be legal consequence. It completely vindicates what the homeless people have been saying all along."
Due to the tracking technology, we have proof positive that Rapid Response broke the law and took property that was perfectly clean and sanitary, and belonged to homeless people, and took them to the dump... We're going to keep doing this as long as these sweeps continue.
All righty, you force of nature AirTag, you, serving the good cause that showed how perfectly usable "pair of gloves, a speaker, two canvas paintings, and a french press - ended up at the Recology Oregon waste transfer station, 6161 N.W. 61st Ave." against all moral and legal codes!
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Things that are NOT allowed: