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.
And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't go after either of them.
And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking up and smashing a camera with a rock and walking away. They may think it's an organization.
And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking up and smashing the camera with a rock and walking away... and friends they may thinks it's a movement…
And that's what it is…
Maybe things are a lot worse than we realize. That's a scary thought.
Remember, Clinton was a Marxist. How bad could he have set us up for U.N. takeover, really? How vaunerable did he REALLY leave us?
He was anti-American, provable by his Soviet anti-American protests. The "voters" he left behind are also blaming America for not giving away everything America has.
It's a scary thought that we may be in more danger than we know. And to think the left is also attempting to disarm us at the same time.
Oops
Some of them will be "undetectable" but many others will not. I do not propose that such a site would have the goal of being perfect and exhaustive. Jus' doin' the bes' we can.
As for 'showing too much interest', I am not sure. It only takes a moment to glance at the camera, look at your Garmin, and note the coordinates and particulars. One advantage that the surveilled have over the surveillors is that they can't watch everywhere at once with the same focus of attention. Machines are not (yet) capable of such automated surveillance.
Apropos of nothing, I often wonder why nobody sneaks up on the "red light" cameras in the dark of night and hoodwinks 'em (put a bag over it, or paint the lens black). It would be possible to do this without being identified (think it through). I thought the Discordians would do something like this. Maybe they're occupied at the moment.
--Boris
This administration is'nt going to be in power forever. Imagine Bubba/Hitlery II with the same cast of characters in policy/cabinet postions. Then imagine them with this kind of survellance power.
Scary is'nt it?
Mockery and sarcasm... :)
What's the big deal with these cameras. What are they going to do? Catch you picking your nose? If you aren't smoking drugs, buying a prostitute, buying drugs, selling drugs, inciting to riot, or committing terrorist acts, what do you have to worry about? You are with the terrorists!
The CIA makes a big deal about taking a picture of Muhammad Omar's license plate. Big deal! We do that right here. So, all you tourists who visit Washington, Dirty City beware: don't speed!
bulldawg
They've paired up with the Right on many occasions - perhaps you just haven't noticed those times.
They are very selective in their support for our civil rights, wishing death to the second and tenth amendments, specifically. And their interpretation of the first is absurd.
But they’re right about some of their other crusades. I welcome their support against this crap.
Cameras are wired to a central viewer. No need to find the cameras, list the storage and viewing locs.
What's the program today? We are going to surveil loopy, from the time she leaves her house till the time she returns. A neighbor she doesn't get along with reported possible suspicious activity.....
In a country of 200 million or so, even two million cameras comes out to 1 cam per hundred naive fools. Better a little paranoid than a lot naive.
We'd all be wearing diapers on our heads and praising Allah!
Just when did our Congress declare war?
Or does the Constitution mean nothing to you?
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