Posted on 02/13/2002 6:15:46 AM PST by goldylight
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Washington police are building what will be the nation's biggest network of surveillance cameras to monitor shopping areas, streets, monuments and other public places in the U.S. capital, a move that worries civil liberties groups, The Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday.
The system would eventually include hundreds of cameras, linking existing devices in Metro mass transit stations, public schools and traffic intersections to new digital cameras mounted to watch over neighborhoods and shopping districts, the Journal said.
"In the context of Sept. 11, we have no choice but to accept greater use of this technology," Stephen Gaffigan, the head of the police department project, told the Journal.
He said city officials had studied the British surveillance system, which has more than 2 million cameras throughout the country, and were "intrigued by that model."
One of the first uses of police surveillance cameras in Washington was April 2000, when authorities set up a network to monitor protests during a meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the newspaper said.
On Tuesday morning, in response to the latest terror alert issued by the Justice Department, police activated a $7 million command center that was first used on Sept. 11. The command center, which has dozens of video stations for monitoring cameras, will remain in use until federal officials end the alert, the Journal reported.
Cameras installed by the police have been programmed to scan public areas automatically, and officers can take over manual control if they want to examine something more closely.
The system currently does not permit an automated match between a face in the crowd and a computerized photo of a suspect, the Journal said. Gaffigan said officials were looking at the technology but had not decided whether to use it.
Eventually, images will be viewable on computers already installed in most of the city's 1,000 squad cars, the Journal said.
The Journal said the plans for Washington went far beyond what was in use in other U.S. cities, a development that worries civil liberties advocates.
Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union in New York, noted there were few legal restrictions of video surveillance of public streets. But he said that by setting up a "central point of surveillance," it becomes likely that "the cameras will be more frequently used and more frequently abused."
"You are building in a surveillance infrastructure, and how it's used now is not likely how it's going to be used two years from now or five years from now," he told the Journal.
This is not a new type of war at all. Its as old as the hills. The only thing different is how our governement has chosen to combat it. Instead of doing the old tried and true methods, we are instead, embarking on this pseudo-war for all time concept. No, its not new at all.The end of the Republic; that is new!
Dream on.
These cameras are here to stay, learn to live with them or work around them.
Orson Wells or George Orwell?
"Rafi Ron said he would recommend instituting ''pattern behavior recognition'' in a report he's scheduled to submit to the Massachusetts Port Authority and state officials on March 15. Under his proposal, teams of behavioral specialists would fan out throughout Logan to identify suspicious travelers...."
"Since the terrorist attacks, Logan has unveiled a host of new antiterrorism technology, from highly sensitive machines to detect explosives to facial recognition software that can match a face with mug shots from a criminal database."
(Anyone here think this behavior pattern recognition is going to be confined to airports?)
And get this one:
''It's only the Mohammad Attas [one of the Sept. 11 terrorist leaders] of this world who will end up complaining.''
So if I don't like having my face scanned by cameras and my behavior scrutinized to the 9th degree by Big Brother, that would make me a terrorist.
Ball-peen hammers would be cheaper than GPS receivers.
Know where I can buy a Bill Clinton mask? $;-)
Okay, kids, its:
Orson Welles
H.G. Wells
George Orwell (AKA Eric Blair).
Class dismissed. :-)
I would bet that the camera networks are planned for every major U.S. city within the next 5 years. Probably being funded by monies to fight terrorism. And those cities that baulk about Civil Liberties, you can bet that they will be strong armed with threats for loss of Governmental funding.
If surveillence cameras are going to be used to fight major crime, well they would do best to place them in the boardrooms of major corporations (e.g. Enron, Andersen, etc.)
So, is this about national security or is it an attempt at social engineering?
Maybe both?
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