[1452] in peace2
1984
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Aimee L Smith)
Wed Feb 13 17:42:43 2002
Message-Id: <200202132242.RAA21636@gold.mit.edu>
To: peace-list@MIT.EDU
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Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 17:42:40 -0500
From: Aimee L Smith <alsmith@MIT.EDU>
facsism is...
never having to feel alone.
------- Forwarded Message
Washington Plans Unprecedented Camera Network
(2002-02-13)
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.
