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Posted on 08/07/2026 11:02:35 AM PDT by algore
A small California city came into national view this week after a late-night host publicized its police department’s widespread surveillance network and questioned why its cameras had recorded a hotel property and its pool “for hundreds of hours.”
In response, the spokesperson for the police department in Rialto, an Inland Empire city east of Los Angeles, downplayed concerns, saying the footage was only “passive monitoring.”
John Oliver, host of “Last Week Tonight” on HBO, delivered a segment on police surveillance technology on Sunday. The comedian took jabs at several systems that have proliferated across the Bay Area, including Flock, the automatic license plate readers.
Twice during the show, Oliver mentioned the city of Rialto in San Bernardino County. Its police department actively encourages new businesses to install cameras which provide the private footage to law enforcement.
So far, the department touts over 3,500 integrated cameras in the city of just over 100,000 residents.
Oliver and his team filed multiple public records requests to review every time a Rialto Police Department officer reviewed Fuses footage.
The department sent the comedy show a 30,413-page document.
Speaking to the Press-Enterprise, department spokesperson Capt. Lamont Quarker admitted that the delivery of the voluminous records was a staff error.
“While that intention was well-meaning, it was not the appropriate response,” he told the San Bernardino County publication. “There was no attempt to conceal, alter or withhold data.”
After reviewing the files, Oliver cherry-picked a few outlandish examples where the department accessed camera footage around Rialto, including an employee-only area at a Wienerschnitzel restaurant and inside a Chick-Fil-A.
“Feels a little weird to me — as does the fact that they accessed cameras at the Rialto Days Inn for hundreds of hours, including the one facing the pool,” Oliver said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
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To be fair, they were probably only looking at the parts that are covered up....
Two things I learned when looking up workplace camera usage around 2005.
1) Biggest use of cameras is to observe employees, not prevent outsider crime and certainly not to protect people.
2) It was common knowledge of security workers is the men spend most of the time trying to see “upskirt” views of women or share cleavage shots with pals.
What a country.
To be fair, John Oliver is a first class jerk, and I don’t believe a word he says - including ‘the’ and ‘a,’
And 1984 seemed like fiction.
“And 1984 seemed like fiction.”
I don’t want to contribute to the alarm, but it looks like these may be electric cameras.
It’s okay. Cops are passive onanists.
Waiting for the FR ‘If you have nothing to hide’ crowd.
if you have nothing to hide, just take the bikini off already
I've been secretly filming the police chief's wife, while she applies her hemorrhoid medication - but it was only "passive monitoring," so everything's good, I guess!
Regards,
They were probably just watching underage girls in bikinis.
No, wait, it was California. Maybe they were watching guys in speedos.
As opposed to... what?! Steam-powered cameras?!
Regards,
I was against what the police did until I saw that it ended up as a segment on John Oliver’s show. Oliver is so arrogantly smug and nauseating in his comments on anything that I did a 180 and now fully defend whatever the police did no matter how egregious.
Yes Rosie O’Donnell for one.
First thought is high cameras as you said. But hundreds of past stories of tiny cameras are much lower. And size may be a circle an inch or less in diameter as in Kroger and other high value health and beauty aids aisle with signs “This area under video surveillance”.
Just a few headlines from search....
Florida church member jailed after hidden camera records girls in bathroom.
Fort Payne revokes Rusty Barrel’s license after hidden camera found in restroom...
Man installed hidden cameras in women’s washrooms.
Hidden camera found in bathroom at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Mid-City; nurse speaks out. January 29, 2026.
Pokémon faces class action lawsuit over alleged hidden cameras in Bellevue office restrooms
A former employee and Pokémon are accused of failing to protect women and girls from secret restroom recordings.
Ditto, but your description is way too kind.
I think they can also be used to track voting... That way we can be sure of only one person one vote!
“As opposed to... what?! Steam-powered cameras?!”
First, these electric cameras - many of them - are on stolen land.
To answer your question: there has to be answers to futuristic, modern electric powered cameras.
Steam-powered cameras are good as long as the steam is not fossil fuel generated.
Wind powered cameras are good too. Water powered are good.
My favorite cameras are large format, mule powered.
I call it militant nostalgia.
no, having cameras at or near voting drop off booths would be like praying silently near an abortion clinic, unless you had a carpet and compass
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