FreeRepublic , LLC
PO BOX 9771
FRESNO, CA 93794
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD
Posted on 01/12/2003 8:32:52 AM PST by RCW2001
Jan. 12
— By Alan Elsner, National Correspondent
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (Reuters) - Police in this popular resort city recently began operating video surveillance cameras with controversial face recognition technology that critics say brings the United States one step closer to becoming a society where "Big Brother is watching you."
Virginia Beach, along with Tampa, Florida, is one of only two cities in the United States to acquire the technology, which cost it $197,000. The system went live last September, at the tail end of the summer vacation period when the city was crowded with visitors.
"Before we switched it on, we went through an extensive public education process with hearings and the involvement of citizen groups and minority groups, who helped write the policies we are using," said deputy police chief Greg Mullen.
As a result, the cameras may only be used for two narrowly defined purposes: to catch some 1,500 people wanted by the city on outstanding felony warrant, and to find runaway children or missing persons. All the images picked up by the cameras are immediately deleted from the system if there is no match.
A citizens' auditing committee has the right to perform unannounced spot checks on police headquarters to make sure the technology is not being misused.
Virginia Beach has had video surveillance cameras watching over its beachfront area since 1993. Three of the city's 13 cameras are linked full-time to the face recognition system, though the others can be activated as needed. The database of wanted people is updated every day.
So far, the system has failed to produce a single arrest, though it has generated a few false alarms. In September, it was sending some 8,000 images a day to the computer at police headquarters. Each camera has the capacity to generate six pictures a minute.
It works by analyzing faces based on a series of measurements, such as the distance from the tip of the nose to the chin or the space between the eyes. Critics say it is highly inaccurate and can be easily fooled.
Mullen, who sees the system eventually being linked to the databases of other city, state and federal law enforcement agencies to track criminals and suspected terrorists, said: "The system doesn't look at skin color or your hair or your gender. It takes human prejudices out of the equation."
Civil liberties groups are hardly reassured. They fear an erosion of personal privacy and evoke the dark vision of British author George Orwell's novel "1984," in which he imagined a totalitarian society with a "Big Brother" who kept all its citizens under constant surveillance.
'PEOPLE FEEL COWED'
"This technology has little or no effect on the crime rate but it does have an effect on peoples' behavior. People feel cowed," said Bruce Steinhardt, who directs a technology and liberty program for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Video surveillance has mushroomed across industrialized nations in recent years. Britain leads the world: the average Londoner is estimated to have his or her picture recorded more than 300 times a day, but New York is not far behind, although its cameras are not linked to face recognition technology.
Studies have found that any reduction in crime after surveillance cameras go in may wear off over time. But Mullen said the cameras in Virginia Beach had provided evidence at trials, allowed police to arrive at crime scenes much more quickly and track criminals as they made their escape. They have also helped police disperse crowds before they became rowdy and freed up officers for other tasks.
In the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Americans seem to be more willing to sacrifice some of their personal privacy for the sake of enhancing security.
Still, many are alarmed by concepts like the Pentagon's proposed Total Information Awareness system, which would collect individuals' financial, medical, communication and travel records in a massive database in the hope of uncovering patterns of potentially hostile activity.
Despite the fact that tests have shown face recognition only works in around 30 percent of cases, the ACLU is alarmed that the technology may soon spread to airports. The organization also fears it could potentially be used to monitor individuals' political activities to harass law-abiding citizens.
"This kind of surveillance should be subject to the same procedures as wiretaps. Law enforcement agencies should justify why they need it and it should be tightly limited, otherwise it will soon become a tool of social control," said Mihir Kshirsagar of the Electronic Information Privacy Center.
Nor does such criticism come exclusively from the political left. Lawyer John Whitehead, founder of the conservative Rutherford Institute, wrote in an editorial that the technology threatened the right of each U.S. citizen to participate in society without the express or implied threat of coercion.
"After all, that is exactly what constant surveillance is -- the ultimate implied threat of coercion," he wrote.
Mullen said that was nonsense. To him, the cameras are no different in principle from a police officer standing on a street corner with a wanted poster -- just more efficient.
I'll quit loosening my tie in public.
What a BS statement! Skin color, hair, and sex (not gender) are traits, not prejudices. By making this statement, Deputy Chief Mullen demonstrates how perverted his system has already become.
And none of this addresses the real point; surveillance of the entire population. Surveillance is an activity that philisophically is conducted by exception. It's is performed on an individual or group for a specific, narrowly-bounded, reason.
What these systems threaten is the continuous surveillance of the entire population for no reason. That is truly "Big Brother".
By effective involvement of its citizens, Virginia Beach has gone the furthest in trying to solve this. But it hasn't addressed the underlying threat of "Big Brother". That threat is simply: When you give government the means, it will use it no matter what the "safeguards".
We have developed the means, but we haven't developed the morals.
Not a problem as long as it's the Republicans doing it and not the Democrats.
Drippy, you're exactly right to be worried. We have not given authority to the State to monitor us. The only authority we have given the State is to pursue wrong-doers.
The State is now trying to stand that on its head by the specious argument; "if you haven't done anything wrong..." American law is quite clear on this, surveillance is only justified when "probable cause" exists. In a free society, there is no such thing as probable cause to monitor an entire population.
Mounting continuous surveillance on an entire population is the hallmark of a police state.
I wonder if people dress up a bit more there. If my wife knew she would be on camera 300 times a day, it would take us an extra hour each time to leave the house before she considered herself properly dressed and made up ;)
http://www.darpa.mil/iao/index.htm
You will be directed to the GOV'T's plan for how we all will be WATCHED. THIS IS THE PLAN, HERE IT IS LOOK, RIGHT HERE THERE'RE TELLING YOU HOW YOU WILL BE ENSLAVED. Read it for your selves.
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.