Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Surveillance cameras linked real time to Detroit street officers
Technology continues its inroads into policing:
It's a handy tool for officers, but the privacy issues are legitimate too. We need to have more of a policy debate in this country about balancing safety and privacy, because the technology is only going to get more sophisticated and potentially intrusive. At what point is an increment gain in safety not worth the concommitant incremental loss in privacy?
Aside from that, though, the toys patrol officers have at their disposal these days are very cool.
Categories: Policing. Technology.
There are new high-tech eyes helping police in communities along the route of the Woodward Dream Cruise this year -- and privacy advocates aren't happy about it.
Six remote-controlled surveillance cameras have been set up to transmit live video images of crowd and traffic conditions to handheld and laptop computers carried by cops.
It's the first time surveillance cameras have been set up on such a wide scale to send live pictures to devices that police officers can carry in their pockets or set up on the front seat of a squad car, according to GigaTrans, the Detroit-based wireless Internet company providing the network.
A police officer walking the route and wondering what the commotion is up ahead can radio headquarters and have a live video image streamed to his Pocket PC handheld. Officials monitoring the feeds at a command center can see suspicious people or vehicles and instantly transmit pictures as officers are dispatched to check it out. A split screen can show all six cameras at the same time to provide pinpoint directions on where traffic or crowd problems are occurring.
Privacy groups aren't impressed. The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan says it smacks of Big Brother.
"This is very problematic," said ACLU spokesperson Wendy Wagenheim. "When the police can read a paper over your shoulder and you don't even know it, I think some alarms should go off."
It's a handy tool for officers, but the privacy issues are legitimate too. We need to have more of a policy debate in this country about balancing safety and privacy, because the technology is only going to get more sophisticated and potentially intrusive. At what point is an increment gain in safety not worth the concommitant incremental loss in privacy?
Aside from that, though, the toys patrol officers have at their disposal these days are very cool.
Categories: Policing. Technology.
