Posted on 06/10/2004 10:52:54 AM PDT by af_vet_rr
24-hour camera surveillance in city is part of bigger plan Financed by homeland security grants, new network aimed at fighting terrorists as much as drug dealers
By Doug Donovan Sun Staff
June 10, 2004
From the Inner Harbor to the Bay Bridge, local and state homeland security authorities are beginning to build a regional network of 24-hour surveillance cameras that will first go live this summer in Baltimore.
The closed-circuit video surveillance system of public spaces will begin in the Inner Harbor by summer's end, and a $2 million federal grant accepted by the city yesterday will expand the cameras into downtown's west side by early November.
"We're trying to build a regional network of cameras," said Dennis R. Schrader, director of homeland security for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
What of privacy concerns raised by groups opposed to cameras constantly monitored by retired police officers or college students?
"We're at war," Schrader said.
The network is part of a comprehensive strategy in the Baltimore area to spend $25 million in homeland security grants this year and next to improve regional cooperation on terrorism concerns. The idea stemmed from a regional group of leaders that is jointly acquiring decontamination equipment and backups for 911 and power systems.
The network of cameras will be placed in downtown's west side because it has light rail and Amtrak lines, federal and state government buildings, and many cultural institutions.
The city wants companies capable of building the system to submit bids by the end of this month. "The purpose of the ... system is to provide for the homeland defense ... while also reducing crime and public disorder," reads the request for proposals. "Cameras will only observe and record that which a police officer or private citizen could legally see."
At a surveillance center in the Atrium Building on Howard Street, 13 to 15 retired police officers or criminal justice college students will monitor images, said Elliot Schlanger, Baltimore's chief information officer.
The system will be owned by the city and managed by Schlanger's office. The network would be able to connect with the state's existing system of closed-circuit cameras that monitor highways, he said.
Eventually, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties would plug their systems into the city's hub.
The city would also work to link its network with the closed-circuit television systems in use by the University of Maryland, the Downtown Partnership, Oriole Park at Camden Yards and other private institutions on downtown's west side.
The network could also hook up to closed-circuit cameras in city schools during a possible terrorist attack, according to the city's request for proposals.
Before that network is built, the Baltimore Police Department will have constructed a separate surveillance center to continuously monitor a number of microwave cameras now being installed around the Inner Harbor, said Kristen Mahoney, director of the Baltimore Police Department's grants and government relations section, which handles homeland security requests.
Mahoney and police officials visited London in November to examine the United Kingdom's extensive use of such cameras.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
With plans this ambitious, I'm sure they'll start tracking vehicles, etc.
What of privacy concerns raised by groups opposed to cameras constantly monitored by retired police officers or college students?
"We're at war," Schrader said.
The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard.
There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to.
You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.
Right?
Anyone?
Oooo, I feel safer already. Lord knows cameras have done wonders to stop crime in the UK.
BEHOLD! The mind of the defenseless
The good old way of American Life is gone forever. Breaks my heart.........
Assuming this project can't be stopped (which it can't) how does everyone feel about the system being accessible to EVERYONE rather than just the government?
Any citizen could monitor the cameras via the web. This would allow everyone equal access rather that allowing the monitoring to be exclusively and selectively used by the government against its own people.
More rights have been lost to that excuse than any other single one. Every war, sometimes justified, but not usually. And most never fully return.
The saddest thing of all - the people will support it. You won't see Baltimore subjects, err citizens, marching in the streets or voting anybody out of office.
I live in Howard County and I do not like this at all. Not because I am a criminal but I have a bad feeling that this will come to haunt many of us in the long term. First Red light cameras and now black boxes in the car I am paying for which will monitor and advise insurance companies how I drive my car. Whats next a camera in public rest rooms to verify how many people really flush the toilets.
When I hear a politician say "We're at War". My response is then let's act like a nation at war. STOP ALL THIS PC NONSENSE, and get serious about protecting the United States of America! The liberals would go nuts. They can't say this because then they would have to admit that PC caused many of the problems -- most significantly, the divisiveness. We are all Americans -- not hyphenated. If you want to be hyphenated - LEAVE!
gps enabled cellphones, and frs radios, "OnStar, how may I help you?", black boxes in your automobile (and pickup), and "please don't forget to wear your seat belt!" (clickit or ticket nazis)!!!
AGREED
Does anybody really want to see what goes on in Baltimore?
People going into adult bookstores, the wrong church, pool-halls. Will these tapes be subpoenaäble by divorce lawyers, news reporters, private detectives, or historians?
We are At War Now.
It's for The Children.
I'm just guessing, and it's a very uneducated guess, but apparently the subjects, I mean citizens, of Baltimore, are much more dangerous than people sneaking over our physical borders.
Since the government is so suspicious of people living and working in Baltimore, I'm going to keep an eye out for anybody from Baltimore.
Even though I live in Texas, I guess the people illegally entering from the south are less of a danger than people living in Baltimore. I'm going to do my part and report anybody with Maryland plates ;-)
LOL! Not a bad idea. I spent some time in the Baltimore area when I was a kid (50s) and I thought it was a wonderful city.
I happened to be there for a conference about 5 years ago, and I was absolutely stunned. There was a thug on every corner, and straying off the main route was clearly (unless you were armed and ready, which I was not) going to be a BAD IDEA. Maybe it's improved, but then again, maybe not.
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