<![CDATA[Kotaku: Police]]> http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/kotaku.com.png <![CDATA[Kotaku: Police]]> http://kotaku.com/tag/police http://kotaku.com/tag/police <![CDATA[Government Affirms Mom's Right to Confiscate PS3 Until Piano Practice is Finished]]> The police in Lake Oswego, Ore., a Portland suburb, pride themselves on the motto "no call is too small." And they took one, yesterday, that comes straight from the Sheriff Andy Taylor manual of community policing. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5877387&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[GameStop Robber Leaves Shoe Behind, Gets 12 Years in Prison]]> A Washington, D.C.-man who robbed a Gamestop in 2008 for nearly $7,500, but left the store one shoe light, was sentenced to a dozen years in prison today. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5851024&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Police Chief Used Department's Only Computer for Video Games]]> Doug Foster, who has been the Police Chief of Umatilla, Florida for the past 19 years, has been suspended for ten days after a litany of complaints against him by staff. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5836841&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[How To Turn a PlayStation 3 Theft Into a Drug Bust]]> 17-year-old Bobby Lee Huffman of Hickory, North Carolina, called the police to his home on Monday after he discovered his PlayStation 3, controllers, and games had apparently been stolen. Then Bobby Lee did something incredibly stupid. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5833953&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Plastic Gun Roleplay Leads to Call for Video Game Ban. Wait, What?]]> Donned in camo fatigues and bulletproof vests, four masked men were on a villa rooftop near a government building in Abu Dhabi. Special forces arrived and arrested the four men. The men were carrying fake guns as well as plastic and metal clubs. They were videotaping themselves roleplaying. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5816121&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Spanish Police: Three Arrested in PSN Hack Attacks]]> Spanish police this morning say they have arrested three involved in the hacking of Sony's Playstation Network, which lead to Sony shutting down the Playstation 3's network for a month, locking nearly 80 million gamers out of playing online. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5810700&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[When Online Gaming Goes Wrong, You Don't Need to Get SWAT Involved]]> A disagreement over an Xbox Live Indie game has resulted in what may be the ultimate grief, with one gamer sending a SWAT team to another gamer's home after phoning in a bogus murder-suicide 911 call. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5807534&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Brazilian Street Markets Aren't As Fun Without Piracy]]> Brazilian commenter KaiserSpiegel tells the story of the sad decline of his local street market following an anti-piracy police raid in today's Speak-Up on Kotaku. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5785297&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[This Guy Wants His Video Game Back]]> But first he has to put on some makeup. With a Sharpie. And then find his sword. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5746271&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Chinese Gangster Busted After Buying Consoles]]> A leader of a Chinese organized crime outfit called "Dragon" was arrested in Japan after the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department was able to nail him — for ordering two game consoles. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5713678&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Cop Tosses Tripping Gamer to the Floor, Makes Him All Laggy]]> Not all Halo: Reach midnight launches went according to play. Take for instance this one in Winona, Minnesota's Gamestop which was plagued not only by an inebriated gamer and a handsie cop, but LAG! More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5639696&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Video Games Can Help Convict You Of Crimes (Or Prove You're Innocent!)]]> Security expert Brandon Nesbit is about to give a talk on how video games and consoles can help catch a criminal. Or, if you're under investigation and did nothing wrong, how they can clear your name! More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5596250&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Toronto Police Include LARPing Gear In G-20 Weapons Display]]> Justifying the harsh handling of protesters at the G-20 summit this weekend, Toronto police invited journalists to a viewing of dangerous confiscated weapons, including foam swords, sock-headed arrows, and a suit of scale mail. Did someone call forth a flame bolt? More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5576449&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Case of the Indie Devs and the Medical Marijuana Mixup]]> IllFonic, the Denver-based developer of Ghetto Golf, happens to have a medical marijuana dispensary for a next-door neighbor. Last night its alarm went off, the fuzz showed up at the wrong address, and three devs were cuffed at gunpoint. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5487257&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[GTA Police Car Mods Have American Cops Feeling Blue]]> NBC are reporting that a series of Grand Theft auto modifications - aimed at replacing the fictional in-game police cars with replicas of real ones - have some American cops a little concerned. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5204430&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Cops Blame Driving Games For Crap Young Drivers]]> Some background: reckless driving and young deaths on Australian roads are a fairly big problem here. We've got lots of long roads, lots of kids with big cars, and a culture of people driving big cars fast. It's been a problem in Australian society for decades, but since games are around these days, they're becoming a convenient scapegoat amongst those who should really know better (ie the police). Having armed himself with a German report on the subject, Superintendent Dave Evans of the NSW Police has told the Daily Telegraph: More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5091582&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[NY Police Unions Condemn Saint's Row 2]]> Saint's Row 2 might be a very tongue-in-cheek take on the GTA-style sandbox genre, but the New York's police unions are taking the game very seriously indeed, calling for it to be pulled from store shelves because it glorifies the sort of things you should really only do in video games. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5063923&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Cop-Confiscated PS3 Replaced with 360]]> Dustin Waller, of Cleveland, N.C. (this is where my mother, I shit you not, foxhunts) got a Playstation 3 from his fiancee, who bought it either used or refurbed for $350 from an independent games retailer at a mall down the road in Salisbury. Tuesday, Waller gets a visit from the police up the road in the other direction, Statesville, who said the PS3 was stolen goods. They'd tracked him after he unwittingly signed on to PSN using the previous owner's ID. After the police confiscated the PS3, Waller went back to the store to get a refund. He got a 360 instead, and thinks the cops asked the store to provide it. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5035234&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Fla Supreme Court Hears Xbox Killers' Appeal]]> The three man convicted of slaughtering six people in 2004 with baseball bats in a Florida home because of an Xbox should have been tried separately, a lawyer told the Florida Supreme Court on Monday. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=387519&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[More on the GTA-Drunk Driving Foofaraw]]> A TV station in Savannah, Ga. is out doing what Crecente and I commonly referred to as the "gratuitous local." In other words, it's a national story that doesn't have any impact specific to your locality, but you sure can dream up some because it's the kind of story that's real easy to assign. The Grand Theft Auto IV Drunk Driving story fits perfectly, and we will see versions of this for two months, if not more. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=386935&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Cop Called Out On Blaming Violent Games]]> It's pretty standard now to hear people close to law enforcement, be they lawyers or police officers, blame much of the violent crime committed by youth on violent video games. Apparently, gamers and game journalists aren't the only ones to notice this, as a reporter for the Naples Daily News questioned when one police officer attributed the reason for a violent crime to a game. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=366974&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Settlement Reached In PS3 Police Shooting]]> The PlayStation 3 launch was a dark time for gaming. Robberies, fistfights, and of course, the tragic shooting of 18-year-old college student and suspected PS3 thief Payton Strickland, shot through his door as policeman Christopher Long allegedly mistook the sounds of a battering ram for gunfire. Now a year and three months from the December 1st 2006 shooting, the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office has agreed to a massive settlement with the victim's family, along with a taped apology from Sheriff Sid Causey.
"I am profoundly sorry," Causey said against a backdrop of the United States and North Carolina flags. "I cannot begin to imagine the immense sorrow the Strickland family must continue to feel, but they will forever be in my thoughts and prayers. It is my hope that the Strickland family will accept this apology and know that it is offered with compassion and sincerity."
More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=361722&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Police Fail To Retrieve Stolen Gil]]> If someone breaks into your house and steals your game console, you call the police, but what if someone breaks into Vana'diel and steals all your gil? When a 'friend' of former Blaine Wisconsin resident Geoff Luurs got hold of his username and password and then wiped his mage Sot's character clean, he went to the local authorities for justice. After determining his items were worth $3800 by looking them up on popular virtual goods vendor IGE, he went to the Blaine authorities with his complaint. They immediately went to the alleged perpetrator's house and shot him dead. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=352741&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[El Paso Police Nab Fugitives With 360s]]> Rule of thumb here people. If you are on the run from the law for a crime you did or did not commit, you don't win video game consoles. Even if you do, you don't. A lot of fugitives from justice learned this lesson the hard way in early November, when police in El Paso Texas staged a roundup using an Xbox 360 and a television as bait. The fugitives in question were informed that they had won a fabulous video game prize, and when they arrived to pick it up they were arrested on the spot. The operation led to 115 arrests, 129 cleared warrants, and the collection of $25,686 in unpaid traffic fines. Not one Xbox 360 was given away. Once again, if you are on the lam, you win nothing. Don't try to collect a prize, show up for the game show you suddenly get invited to, or follow that piece of candy being mysteriously drug along the ground by a string towards a waiting paddy wagon. It can only end in tears. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=328441&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Video Game Stabbing Update]]> On Tuesday I wrote about a tragic incident in Pennsylvania involving a 13 year-old boy stabbing his older brother to death over whose turn it was with the video game the two were playing. What wasn't divulged by any of the news sources I had uncovered was what game they were playing. Now the Philadelphia Inquirer (my old hometown paper) has some further information on the subject, and while it doesn't go into specifics, it does explain the lack of video game backlash over the case.
The two had been playing a sports video game when an argument erupted over who would play the next game, according to Lansdowne Police Chief Daniel J. Kortan Jr. "It was a dispute over the use of a video game," he said.
So it was either a single-player sports game, or the family only owned one controller, which seems implausible for a household with two boys in it. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=280137&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Teen Killed By Brother Over Video Game]]> A Sunday afternoon of video game goodness turned deadly this past Sunday as a thirteen year-old boy fatally stabbed his sixteen year-old brother in the chest during an alleged dispute over who got next. The younger brother stabbed his sibling in the chest twice, puncturing his heart and a lung. A tragic situation like this could quickly turn into an anti-gaming media circus if handled incorrectly. Luckily Lansdowne has one of the more sensible Police Chiefs. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=279272&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[UK Police to Sony: Launch Earlier, We're Afraid of the Dark]]> In anticipation of the PS3's UK launch, police are fearing mugged fanboys, stolen consoles and everything short of the ground opening from under the doomed European gamers, swallowing up their soon-to-be-melted-by-molten-lava PAL PS3s. Authorities told GameIndustry.biz:
If the launches do go ahead, we have to negate the issues as far as we can, but we can't remove the risk factors for people coming to or going away from the store.
The police seriously pulled out the old, "If the launches do go ahead" verbage? More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=244626&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[London Cops Busy With PSPs, Notsomuch Policing]]> Looks like a pair of police officers in Chingford, East London are in a bit of hot water after being caught on camera with their PlayStation Portables out while on duty. In their defense, they were guarding a wall, an activity decidedly more boring than playing FIFA on the PSP. Oh, I kid. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=232714&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[EB Clerk Murdered]]> A San Antonio EB Games Clerk ws found dead in the store Monday afternoon, police there said. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=232453&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Former Deputy Charged in PS3 Shooting]]> UPDATE: Charges have now been dropped due to a foreman's error. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=221012&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Police Jump PS3 Line]]>
Two police officers in Rhode Island are being investigated for using their magical policeman powers to skip to the front of the PlayStation 3 launch line at the Sony Store in Providence Place Mall. Apparently one Warwick officer and one Providence officer were among a group of seven folks ushered into the front of the queue on launch day by a couple of mall security guards, both of which are now jobless. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=220109&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[PSP = Terrorism]]>
We've already established that PSPs will reduce children to tears. Now we learn that they'll get you in trouble with homeland security, as well. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=196680&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[China Turns Internet Cafes Into Study Hall]]> Summer vacation! And if you lived in China, you'd jet over to the local internet cafe and play some MMO until your eyes bled. Well, you would have if the Chinese government weren't such a big wet blanket. The country's MInistry of Culture is kicking off a campaign to monitor internet cafes from July 1st to September 30th this year. This crackdown will keep kids out of the cafes and on the street, where they can do safe things like play in traffic. Middle school teachers are being hired to serve as internet cafe supervisors. School's out? Yeah, right. Brian Ashcraft More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=183567&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Police: Drug Dealer Takes Games as Payment]]> Teen game aficionado and accused drug dealer Andrew Silva found a way to blend his job and his hobby into one juicy, law-breaking bag of fun. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=183252&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[UK Police Produce Pedagogic Flash Game]]> The West Yorkshire Police Department has joined forces with UK-based flash games developer Dubit to produce a socially-conscious online children's game. "City Zone" is a simplistic, RPG-style game in which you complete various good deeds such as finding an old lady's cat with "fish perfume", or delivering tax credit documents to a goth. Occasionally during play, dialog boxes pop up that have a civic problem, such as litter in the streets, and a list of possible solutions (making prisoners clean it up, starting an ad campaign, ignoring it, etc) and their associated costs. The player's decision is followed by a News Alert dialog that reports on the success or failure of the choice. The bland graphics and tinny sound are offputting, but overall this has a bit more tooth than the average edutainment monstrosity. Eliza Gauger More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=176355&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Prisoner Sues Prison For Busted Dreamcast]]> While doing five years for stabbing his friend, Scottish inmate Adam Shannon claims that his Sega Dreamcast was damaged by "negligent action of the prison officers." Shannon's wife gave him the no-longer produced console and 15 games back in 2004, just before he entered the maximum security prison. The prison filed an action in small claims court and demanded 350 in damage. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=169348&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[School Shooters Played Violent Video Games (Of, Course!)]]> CNN reports that a high school shooting in Riverton, Kansas was prevented by a warning on MySpace.com. The message mentioned April 20th, which is Hitler's birthday and Columbine's anniversary. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=168680&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Microsoft Responds to Pedophile Accusation]]> We wrote about the man arrested last week for allegedly sexually assaulting a boy he met on Xbox Live in California. This will be of no surprise to you, but it seems that in the world of broadcast TV, one incident can make a trend. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=148737&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Santa Arrested: A Rockstar Christmas]]> OK, so I have a new favorite video game Christmas card. Leave it to Rockstar to figure out a way to work crime into Christmas. Loves it. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=145473&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Carrying Knives Blamed on Video Games]]> London's Metropolitan Police have initiated a new anti-knife carrying ad campaign. In it, a video game character runs into other kids and gets in a scuffle. Knives are drawn, and he goes down. The computer generated kid turns into a real person. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=142351&view=rss&microfeed=true