Surveillance Camera News
S.C.N. Vol II. No. II
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Assorted News Items , Links and Press Peleases for: JULY 2001
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07-01-2001 High-Tech Security on Tampa Streets (AP)
07-02-2001 Stop or They'll Shoot (AccessAtlanta)
07-02-2001 D.C. Aims To Catch Speeders On Camera (Washington Post)
07-04-2001 Camera Found in Ladies Room (Newsday)
07-05-2001 Florida City Stirs Controversy with Crowd Watching (Reuters)
07-07-2001 Evolving Reality TV Tests the Audience's Endurance (NY Times)
07-10-2001 Man Says Detroit Police Beat Him (ClickOnDetroit)
07-11-2001 House Leader Joins ACLU Against Video Prying (Reuters
07-12-2001 A new era in intelligent traffic management (Technology Review)
07-00-2001 Festival Goers Say Police Roughed Them Up (ClickOnDetroit/CH4)
07-00-2001 Politech archive on surveillance cameras (Politech)
07-18-2001 on video cameras in police cars: (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
07-23-2001 Cheap cameras draw unscrupulous users (Yahoo News)
07-25-2001 San Diegan Supports Red Light Cameras (Yahoo News)
07-26-2001 Red Light Cameras Expected to Boost Tickets (ABC 7 WJLA-TV)
press releases
links
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High-Tech Security on Tampa Streets
The Associated Press
Sunday, July 1, 2001; 5:22 p.m. EDT
TAMPA, Fla. –– Tampa is using high-tech security cameras to scan the
city's streets for people wanted for crimes, a law enforcement tactic that
some liken to Big Brother.
A computer software program linked to 36 cameras began scanning
crowds Friday in Tampa's nightlife district, Ybor City, matching results
against a database of mug shots of people with outstanding arrest
warrants.
European cities and U.S government offices, casinos and banks are
already using the so-called face-printing system, but Tampa is the first
American city to install a permanent system along public streets, The
Tampa Tribune reported Sunday.
A similar system was used at Super Bowl XXXV, which was held in
Tampa last January.
"Tampa is really leading the pack here," said Frances Zelazny, a
spokeswoman for Visionics Corp., which produces the "FaceIt" software.
The software has raised concerns over privacy, ethics and government
intrusion.
"This is Big Brother actually implemented," said Jack Walters of the
Tampa chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "I think this just
opens the door to it being everywhere."
But Tampa Detective Bill Todd says FaceIt is no different than having a
police officer standing on a street holding a mug shot.
At the Super Bowl, a Visionics competitor, Graphco Technologies, wired
cameras around Raymond James Stadium and in Ybor City.
The computer spotted 19 people at the crowded stadium with outstanding
warrants, all for minor offenses. But no arrests were made.
"During the Super Bowl, we got overwhelmed," Todd said. "That's the
other thing: When you get a match, how quickly can you get to these
people?"
Business owners have mixed emotions about the new technology.
"I don't know if I like it," said Vicki Doble, who owns The Brew Pub. "It
may be a bit too much."
Don Barco, owner of King Corona Cigars Bar & Cafe, approves of the
cameras but says they may not be as effective as the city hopes.
"Sometimes these high-tech toys, they tend to give a little too much
credence to what they do," he said.
© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
STOP OR THEY'LL SHOOT
Red-light cameras in Marietta raising privacy questions
Jim Galloway - Staff
Monday, July 2, 2001
By the end of this summer, the owner of a vehicle
that runs a traffic signal in Marietta could get a
ticket in the mail, along with photographs of the car,
the license plate and the red light, burning bright.
If pushed, city officials will show the owner another
photo --- of whoever was behind the wheel.
Exactly where the cameras will be located hasn't
been decided. A prototype system now has its eyes
trained on Windy Hill Road and U.S. 41, one of the
most accident-prone crossroads in Georgia.
How they'll work is up in the air, too. The lenses
could beam images directly into the databanks of
the Marietta Police Department.
However they work, and no matter where they are,
the cameras will be the first of their kind in the state.
And they'll be the latest intersection between
computerized traffic control and mounting concerns
over privacy on the highway.
Installation of the cameras has required quiet
deal-making in the Legislature, and a debate among members of the Marietta
City Council over the "mistress issue" --- whether the camera aimed at the
windshield of the offending automobile would show more than the driver.
Then, there was the sticky question of who would see that photograph.
From Washington, U.S. Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) has weighed in with his worries
about the prospect of cameras at Windy Hill.
In fact, over the last few months, traffic surveillance cameras have become a
minor cause celebre among many conservative Republicans --- some of whom
have begun to condemn red-light cameras as a fund-raising scam by local
governments.
But Marietta officials say safety is the issue, not money, and that they will do
everything they can to protect the privacy of drivers. "If you don't run a red light,
we won't know you're here. We don't care that you're here," said Warren
Hutmacher, a management analyst who is directing the city's program.
Cameras promote safety, study finds
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, drivers who try to beat
red lights injure 260,000 people each year --- and kill 750.
A study released by the institute this spring (located at highwaysafety.org)
indicates that cameras may lower those numbers. While common in Europe,
Australia and parts of Asia, red-light cameras are now in use in about 50 U.S.
cities in a dozen states.
In Georgia, Windy Hill Road and U.S. 41 is an obvious location for an
experiment. The intersection handles more than 40,000 vehicles each day.
Two years ago, it topped the State Farm Insurance Co.'s list of most
dangerous junctions in the state (though it didn't make the top five on the
company's new list issued last week).
Since December, a prototype bank of lenses has monitored the right,
westbound through-lane on Windy Hill Road. The system developed by
LaserCraft of Norcross uses a laser beam to trigger its cameras and traditional
phone lines to transfer the information to police computers.
Company President Scott Patterson said the cameras document 20 to 25
red-light violations every day. "That is with the warning sign in place," he said.
At that rate, the city of Marietta could expect to collect roughly $500,000 a
year from cameras focused on that one lane alone.
The city requested bids for a permanent system late last month. Hutmacher
said he expects the system to be in operation and issuing tickets by Sept. 1.
Depending on the technology, the cost of equipping a single intersection with
cameras can run between $50,000 and $200,000. After a system is picked,
traffic engineers will then decide on one intersection from a list of five to 10.
Windy Hill and U.S. 41 is on the list, but so are others, Hutmacher said.
The number of violations, rather than the number of cars passing through an
intersection, will determine where the cameras go, he said. "We're not looking
to catch people. We're looking to solve a problem." Anything else, Hutmacher
said, will "call the integrity of the system into question."
Marietta officials and other proponents of red-light cameras argue that it is
unreasonable to expect police departments to station officers at busy
intersections 24 hours a day, or even during peak periods. And even if the
manpower is available, catching a red-light violator means officers often have to
run the traffic signal themselves to issue the ticket --- posing an unnecessary
hazard to other drivers.
In their stack of sample violators, the LaserCraft staff has identified one repeat
offender who has run the red light at Windy Hill Road at least three times in
four months. They also have a photograph of a Cobb County school bus
entering an intersection on a March afternoon, long after the light has shifted
from amber to red.
"This is what you have to balance against the Big Brother arguments," said
Patterson, the company president.
But the shadow of Big Brother also must be weighed against the ghost of
Ludowici.
In 1953, the American Automobile Association named that small town, located
southwest of Savannah, the nation's premier speed trap. For more than a
decade, Georgia governors tried to clean up the town's reputation.
In 1970, Gov. Lester Maddox ordered billboards be placed on either end of
town to warn oncoming motorists on their way to Florida.
But in the state Capitol, the town remains a symbol of the way counties and
cities can abuse their power to enforce traffic laws.
State Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Decatur) shepherded this year's
legislation laying down guidelines for the use of red-light cameras in Georgia.
She purposely kept a low profile. "No pun intended, we went in under the radar
screen with this bill," she said.
A similar bill was attempted three years ago and failed. Benfield got her
legislation through by quietly striking a deal with House Speaker Tom Murphy
(D-Bremen) and Appropriations Chairman Terry Coleman (D-Eastman), two of
the most powerful lawmakers in the Capitol.
At their request, she included in the legislation a cap on speeding fines that
affect every city and county police department in Georgia --- something that
had been resisted by local governments for years. As of Sunday, drivers can
no longer be fined for going less than 5 mph over the speed limit --- on the first
offense. If motorists are caught driving less than 10 miles over the speed limit,
fines can't exceed $25. The maximum first-offense fine for driving between 24
and 34 miles over the speed limit is $500.
The restrictions on the use of red-light cameras also have a post-Ludowici
flavor:
> Intersections with cameras must be marked with 30- x 30-inch signs.
> Fines can be no more than $70 and will be considered civil penalties similar
to parking violations. No points will be assessed against a driver's license.
> The rules of evidence are tipped slightly in favor of the car owner, against
whom the fine is levied. The owner can avoid the fine by swearing in court that
he wasn't the driver or by producing a notarized statement saying who was at
the wheel.
> No tampering with the timing of lights will be allowed, and governments will
have to report how much in fines they collect each year.
> Companies that install or operate the red-light cameras are barred from
collecting fees based on the amount of fines issued.
> Photographs taken by the cameras won't be subject to the state's open
record laws. They'll be off-limits to journalists, divorce attorneys and all other
private citizens.
"Frankly, I would love to see more of this technology," Benfield said. The city
of Decatur, which she represents, is also interested in red-light cameras.
School zones throughout Georgia could benefit, too, she said.
Photos vs. privacy
But when pushing the legislation, Benfield said she and other lawmakers
assumed that traffic light cameras would be aimed at the cars and rear license
plates.
Marietta intends to go a step further, taking a separate, head-on photo of the
driver.
The idea, city officials said, is to produce indisputable evidence that will
prevent drivers from escaping their fines. Marietta has the option of mailing that
photograph to the home of the vehicle owner --- but has decided it won't.
Instead, the city intends to hold the image, as some other cities do, and will
show it to the owner only if he or she disputes the ticket. After that, the city
expects the car's owner to sort the matter out within his or her own family.
(The current prototype system is not photographing drivers.)
"That's a privacy issue that the council didn't want to cross a line on," said
Hutmacher, the official putting the red-light program together.
Said council member Phillip Goldstein: "There was some concern from some
members as to what else that (photograph) might capture."
A camera aimed at the driver doesn't guarantee a photo. In Mesa, Ariz., an
examination of red-light photographs taken of drivers indicated that more than
half were unusable. Windshield glare, dark interiors, sun visors and window
braces obscured the faces.
But most of those ticketed will never see the driver's photograph. Experts say
that as long as fines remain low, and insurance rates aren't affected, the vast
majority of drivers mail in their fines without protest.
Even so, it is that extra photograph of the driver that has raised eyebrows in
Georgia, on both the right and the left.
Benfield, who describes herself as a "card-carrying member of the ACLU,"
thinks Marietta's effort goes a picture too far. "What I endorse is photographing
the license plate only," she said. "I'd have no problem prohibiting interior
photos."
In that --- and little else --- she is in agreement with Rep. Barr, perhaps the
most conservative member of Georgia's congressional delegation.
"Therein lies some very serious Fourth Amendment concerns," Barr said. The
ACLU, which works with Barr on privacy issues, has given red-light cameras a
tepid endorsement, but warns against "mission creep" and improper use of the
cameras.
Barr recently included Marietta's coming red-light camera in a general criticism
of the proliferation of surveillance cameras in the United States. While it is
unusual for a congressman to dip into a local dispute, Barr said he thought it
was necessary "to raise the awareness of citizens as to what their local
government is doing."
The Republican heads up a House judiciary subcommittee now concentrating
on privacy issues.
While privacy on the Internet is clearly a legitimate area for Congress to police,
Barr said, the topic of privacy and transportation is less so. Still, he
"suspects" that Congress could link restrictions on the use of traffic
surveillance cameras to federal road-building dollars.
The issue has begun to percolate among many of his fellow politicians.
Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, a Republican, last year vetoed a bill to expand
traffic surveillance systems in his state.
House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) is challenging a National Park
Service policy to issue speeding tickets via radar-triggered surveillance
cameras.
And he recently produced a 23-page white paper (located at
freedom.house.gov) debunking the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's
endorsement of red-light cameras.
The House majority leader maintains that the red-light crisis alleged by the
insurance institute is manufactured.
Too often, Armey argues, cities shorten yellow lights after installing red-light
cameras.
His Web site gleefully notes that San Diego recently suspended its red-light
camera program, which generates up to 5,000 tickets a month.
Many of those ticketed have complained of short yellow lights, and officials
discovered that maladjustments on some cameras resulted in a misreading of
speed and location of some cars.
But Barr has so far restricted himself to the constitutionality of the issue.
Safety isn't enough, he said. "There's always a good reason," Barr said. "That
doesn't make it constitutional, nor does it make it good public policy."
SMILE, YOU'VE JUST BEEN CITED
Marietta hasn't settled on a system for its red-light cameras, but a prototype by LaserCraft Inc. of
Norcross has been operating at Windy Hill Road and U.S. 41 for the past seven months. A look at
how camera systems catch red-light runners and what offenders might expect to receive in the
mail:
1. The light turns yellow and a driver approaches the intersection
2. Ten times a second, a laser sensor meaures the car's speed and distance from the stop line.
3. The light turns red. The car's speed and distance tell the sensor that the vehicle will not stop
in time.
4. The computer takes over, readying the bank of cameras.
5. The computer takes 3-4 pictures (examples of what those ticketed might receive in the mail):
a. A wide-angle shot, showing the car behind the white line and the red light
b. A high-resolution image of the license plate
c. Showing the car in the middle of the intersection, with the light still red.
d. Face of driver (only if system designed to do so).
Camera bank: If the system is set up to take photos of drivers' faces. The Windy Hill system
doesn't take face shots.
Flash: Windy Hill system doesn't use one.
Trip wire: Some camera setups use trip wires instead of laser sensors.
Note: License plates have been blurred because photographs were taken during testing. Drivers
have not been charged.
Source: LaserCraft
Photos courtesy of LaserCraft; graphic by CHUCK BLEVINS / Staff
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
D.C. Aims To Catch Speeders On Camera
Six Devices Will Patrol 40 to 60 Designated Areas
By Clarence Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 2, 2001; Page B01
After a year-long delay, D.C. police are scheduled to announce today the use of
radar cameras to capture motorists who race through city streets, the latest effort by
local officials to use technology to control traffic scofflaws.
After claiming success in curbing red-light runners through photo images, D.C.
police will begin ticketing speeders with six speed cameras. The effort will start with
a month-long probationary period, during which offenders will get warnings rather
than tickets.
The program was announced last August but never started because of technical and
legal concerns. Now police are ready to try again. Officials are scheduled to
announce the start of the region's first photo radar system at a news conference
today at the corner of MacArthur Boulevard and Arizona Avenue in Northwest
Washington, two blocks from where an 81-year-old woman was killed by a
hit-and-run driver in December.
At town hall meetings this year, residents have demanded that police and city
officials increase traffic enforcement. Speed-related traffic deaths occur in the
District at nearly twice the average national rate.
"This is the future of speed enforcement. [A camera] could be anywhere," said Lt.
Patrick Burke, traffic safety coordinator for the D.C. police. "You've got to look in
the mirror and change your own behavior."
Burke said photo enforcement is only part of an increased push to make drivers
aware that they move too fast. Police also will begin a "mass arrest" of motorists
blatantly breaking the speed laws -- specifically, those driving more than 30 mph
over the speed limit. The department also expects to start using 70 new laser radar
guns in patrol cars July 9.
Unless otherwise posted, the speed limit on District streets is 25 mph; in alleys it's
15 mph.
The cameras aim a narrow radar beam at a 20-degree angle across a street and
click a photo if a car crosses at or above a threshold speed. Officials did not specify
how high the threshold would be.
The cameras will print out a photo of the speeding vehicle, along with the address,
date, speed and corresponding fine. The tickets will be issued by mail, and drivers
can pay them by mail or fight them in court.
The photo radar will involve off-duty officers working overtime Monday through
Saturday, roaming targeted areas in five Ford Crown Victoria sedans mounted with
the radar cameras. One camera will be mounted at a fixed location.
A news release on the program cited MacArthur Boulevard and the corner of North
Capitol and Longfellow streets, both scenes of recent fatal accidents, as among
target areas for the crackdown.
The enforcement will be concentrated at 40 to 60 sites during the first four to six
months, and the program's early stages will be focused on collecting and analyzing
data.
The sites selected for enforcement will be listed on the D.C. police department's
Web site (www.mpdc.org), Burke said.
The effort to nab speeders is similar to the city's use of cameras to catch motorists
who run red lights. That program, launched in 1999, deploys 39 cameras at
intersections with the most violations. Last year it generated more than $9 million in
fines for the District, and police said it has drastically reduced infractions at some
intersections.
Citywide, about 12,000 traffic citations were issued last year, police said.
Lockheed Martin IMS, which runs the red-light program, will fund the start-up and
operational costs for the Dutch-made radar cameras. In return, Lockheed will
receive $29 for every ticket paid. Fines for speeding tickets range from $30 to
$200, depending on how fast the motorist was going.
District police point to successes in other cities like Portland, Ore., which registered
a 30 percent drop in speeders after installing eight cameras. Nationally, 30 percent
of fatal accidents are attributed to speed; in the District, fast driving causes 56
percent of fatalities, said Lt. Bridget Sickon, head of the major crash investigation
unit.
At an April town hall meeting about crime in Northeast Washington, Ward 4
residents complained to Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey that their streets resembled
the Indianapolis 500 raceway and that drivers treat pedestrian crosswalks as little
more than decor.
"If you step out in these streets, you will lose your life or at least a few limbs," Lillian
Roane, a high school math teacher, told Ramsey.
Roane said seniors have trouble crossing the street to attend church near her home.
Ramsey insisted to Ward 4 residents that cameras are the answer because "those
things never sleep."
Anne Renshaw said that when she steps on her front porch facing Military Road in
Northwest Washington, she sees dozens of drivers speeding -- some at speeds
above 60 mph, she estimated.
Renshaw, who chairs the Chevy Chase Advisory Neighborhood Commission,
began writing letters to city officials in October 1997, asking for red-light and speed
cameras, particularly at six spots along Military Road.
"It is without a doubt a speedway at certain times of the day, depending on the
traffic flow," Renshaw said last week. "We deserve better protection, and if this is
one way . . . put up the cameras."
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wednesday July 04 07:15 AM EDT
Camera Found in Ladies Room
By Melanie Lefkowitz and Tania E. Lopez, Staff Writers
When the woman looked up in the bathroom of her midtown office,
her heart dropped -- a surveillance camera was peeking out of the ceiling vent.
The horrified employee of Screenvision Cinema, located at 579 Fifth Ave.,
noticed the closed-circuit camera pointed at the stalls on the seventh floor
around 5 p.m. Monday and called 911.
When police arrived, they traced a cord from the camera to a video monitor
in the basement of an adjoining building.
The building superintendent, Zdenko Ceselka, 34, of 13 Willow Pl. in Iselin,
N.J., was questioned and later arrested, charged with rigging the device.
Camera Found in Ladies Room Worker accused of rigging device
by Melanie Lefkowitz and Tania E. Lopez Staff Writers
When the woman looked up in the bathroom
of her midtown office, her heart dropped -- a surveillance
camera was peeking out of the ceiling vent.
The horrified employee of Screenvision Cinema,
located at 579 Fifth Ave., noticed the
closed-circuit camera pointed at the stalls on the
seventh floor around 5 p.m. Monday and called
911.
When police arrived, they traced a cord from the
camera to a video monitor in the basement of an
adjoining building.
The building superintendent, Zdenko Ceselka, 34,
of 13 Willow Pl. in Iselin, N.J., was questioned
and later arrested, charged with rigging the device.
A second camera -- and corresponding monitor --
was later found next door in the basement of 3 E.
48th St., police said. "It's a violating thing,” the
woman who first noticed the camera said. "This is
really hard for us.”
Ceselka, who has no prior criminal record, faces
charges of unlawfully installing or maintaining a
two-way mirror or other viewing device, officials
said yesterday.
The violation carries a maximum penalty of 15
days in jail or a $300 fine.
Ceselka was awaiting arraignment last night.
There is no evidence that Ceselka recorded
anything from his cameras. If he had, said Barbara
Thompson, spokeswoman for the Manhattan
district attorney's office, he would have been
looking at a felony charge.
"So this should put a warning out to people,” she
said.
Officials at Screenvision Cinema, an advertising
agency, declined comment. A man who answered
the phone at Edizone Realty Corp., the building's
management company and Ceselka's employer,
could provide little information.
Women who work in the 12-story office building
were clearly shaken by yesterday's news.
"I just heard about it and I think it's despicable,”
said Yvonne Johnson, an office manager on the
fourth floor. "I don't even know why someone
would do something like this. I mean, in a building
like this, a camera in the ladies' room?”
Johnson and others were upset to hear that the
quiet superintendent, who they know as Dino, was
being accused of such a thing.
"I've never seen anything out of the way about
him,” she said.
As the news circulated through the building,
women said they were especially outraged that
something like this could go undetected.
One woman who worked on the floor where the
camera was found said she felt violated by a man
she had come to trust.
"I smoke cigarettes with him. He saw where I
went to get lunch,” she said. "It's one more thing
on top of everything that women have to worry
about. It goes from when you're 12 years old and
someone throws change on the floor to check out
under your skirt.
"You work at a place 12 hours a day and consider
it your second home, so when you go to work it
should be a safe place.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thursday July 5 2:33 AM ET
Florida City Stirs Controversy with Crowd Watching
TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - The city of Tampa, criticized by civil libertarians for its scanning of fans at this
year's Super Bowl, has again stirred controversy by launching a police surveillance system using street
cameras and computer software to look for wanted criminals.
The face recognition technology was put into action by Tampa police last Friday, linking software to 36
video cameras that were already in use in the city's bustling entertainment district of Ybor City to watch
for people who might be on a police database.
The ``smart'' cameras swiftly aroused attention for what critics see as an invasion of privacy, or the
arrival of ``Big Brother'' to watch over people enjoying a night out on the town: in this case a district that
can attract as many as 150,000 people on busy weekend evenings.
But Tampa Police Detective Bill Todd, in charge of putting the system in place, said on Tuesday it was
no more invasive, but more efficient, than having an officer standing on a street corner and watching out
for possible wanted criminals passing by.
``If the system doesn't find a match, it discards the image,'' Todd told Reuters, stressing that unlike the
surveillance systems found in places like convenience stores, the system makes no record of images
unless it matches a person the police might want to approach.
The software, linked to street cameras that have been in place in Ybor City since 1997, scans a person's
face and breaks it down to compare it with images held in a police database of wanted felons, known
sexual predators and runaway children, Todd said.
If it finds a match, the system alerts officers monitoring the camera, who in turn can message an officer
on the street for a possible approach. Todd said that if there were no match, the images were discarded
in less than a minute.
Tampa police installed the system, initially for a year's contract, after using a similar technology to scan
images of thousands of fans as they went through turnstiles into Raymond James Stadium to watch the
National Football League's biggest annual event, the Super Bowl, in January.
The system was attacked at the time by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is again worried
about the use of the technology by the city of about 300,000 people.
``We're very concerned that this system is in violation of the Fourth Amendment ... the right of the public
to be free of unreasonable search and seizure,'' said Jack Walters of the ACLU's Tampa chapter.
``If you ask most people if they would want a police officer to ask for their ID when they were doing
nothing wrong, they would say no. This system checks your identity without your permission,'' he said.
``The history of criminal law in the United States is that people can be pursued by the police only if there
is reasonable suspicion ... historically we have not scanned the general public looking for criminals in the
crowd,'' Walters said.
He added that far from being like a police officer on a street corner, the system would be more
analogous to 100 officers carrying hundreds of mugshots each.
Todd, responding to suggestions of invasiveness, said the city had been very open in launching the
system, and added that signs alerting citizens to street cameras had been updated to note the new
``smart'' cameras.
'BIG BROTHER TRACKING OUR EVERY MOVE?'
The system being used by Tampa police is made by New Jersey company Visionics Corp., a leading
maker of identification technologies.
The Law Enforcement Alliance of America, a Washington D.C.-based group, called on Tuesday for the
immediate withdrawal of the computer-enhanced cameras from Tampa streets.
U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Dick Armey added his criticism. ``This is a full-scale
surveillance system,'' the Texas Republican said in a statement on Monday. ``Do we really want a
society where one cannot walk down the street without Big Brother tracking our every move?''
But the Tampa Tribune said fears of privacy invasion could be misplaced, given people are ``on camera''
anyway in many places, such as tollbooths, automatic teller machines and convenience stores.
``It is all done for the purpose of crime prevention, crime solving and law enforcement -- not to create a
Stalinist police state,'' the newspaper said in an editorial on Tuesday.
Wednesday July 04 02:31 PM EDT
Tampa Scans the Faces in Its Crowds for Criminals
By DANA CANEDY The New York Times
Police in Tampa, Fla., are using cameras equipped with face-recognition software to
search for criminal suspects among people in a downtown district.
TAMPA, Fla., July 3 Camera shy? Then steer clear of Tampa's nightlife district.
The Tampa Police Department has placed three dozen security
cameras with face-recognition software in a downtown district
popular with locals and tourists. Now, everyone who visits the
district, Ybor City, for a burger or a beer runs the risk of having his
face digitally scanned and the noses, cheeks and chins checked
against a mug-shot database of murderers, drug dealers and other
criminal suspects with arrest warrants.
The police have used surveillance cameras in other cities to record
and catch criminals in the act. But Tampa's effort is the widest by
a police department in this country to fish for criminal suspects in a
general-public sea, using this technology.
The makers of the system, the Visionics Corporation of Jersey
City, offered Tampa free use of it for a year, in an effort to build a
market among municipalities. City officials, who had used a competing system in January to scan
the crowds at the Super Bowl for possible terrorists, were agreeable.
"It's a public safety tool, no different than having a cop walking around with a mug shot," said
City Councilman Robert F. Buckhorn Jr., chairman of Tampa's public safety committee.
Besides, he added, on a Ybor City street of restaurants, nightclubs and stores crowded with
20,000 people, "your expectation of privacy is somewhat diminished, anyway."
Randall Marshall, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, disagreed,
saying it amounted to subjecting the public to a digital lineup.
"This is yet another example of technology outpacing the protection of people's civil liberties,"
Mr. Marshall said. "It has a very Big Brother feel to it."
The system, in effect since Friday, has not yet identified any suspects, though the system used at
the Super Bowl identified 19 people thought to be wanted on outstanding warrants for
misdemeanors.
Reaction in Ybor City was mixed.
Jason Skinner, a security guard buying sandwiches at a deli across the street from a camera
mounted to a utility pole, said that, despite his occupation, he opposed the digital peeping by the
police.
"It's invading people's privacy," Mr. Skinner said of the camera aimed in his direction. "They're
all over the place."
But some Ybor business owners said they hoped the cameras became a permanent fixture,
much like street lights.
"I don't find it an invasion of my privacy, and my customers don't either," said Jill Wax, 48, the
longtime owner of La France vintage clothing store and the former president of the Ybor City
Chamber of Commerce. "My only problem with it is how many people will they catch, how
beneficial will it be? I guess we'll have to wait and see about that."
Since the system, called FaceIt, started, police officers in a nondescript command center in a
neighborhood building, monitored a bank of television screens filled with faces in the crowd,
zooming in on individuals and programming the equipment to scan them.
The FaceIt computer broke down each facial image into something similar to a map, with 80
reference points to check. If the system matched more than a dozen of those points against an
image in its database which is to include 30,000 faces when it is fully operational next month it
would signal a match.
At that point, a system operator would determine if the images were similar enough to radio a
uniformed officer, who would investigate and possibly make an arrest.
No suspects were identified today, though several people were caught licking ice cream, gulping
sodas and stuffing their mouths on their lunch break.
Detective Bill Todd, in charge of the operation, said it was not as if people were on "Candid
Camera." The department has placed signs in the area warning passersby that "Smart CCTV is
in use," referring to closed circuit television, but signs are not visible from every area in which the
cameras operate, and most people interviewed did not know what the message meant.
Similar technology is used by banks, casinos and other businesses. But Samir Nanavati, a partner
at the International Biometric Group consulting firm in New York, which advises companies that
consider using such technology, and others said that people generally expect some form of
surveillance in those settings and can decide ahead of time whether they want to be on camera.
"The question is, can they educate people in that area sufficiently enough so that they understand
what is taking place?" Mr. Nanavati said. "And, if they do understand, is there any way for them
to opt out and choose not to utilize the technology and the answer is no."
The Tampa police call the privacy issue overblown because the camera does not record images
of people who have not been charged with a crime. "We are not cataloguing a thing," Detective
Todd said.
"If the image the camera takes is not in the database," he said, "it immediately dumps the image."
Both the manufacturer and the police say the chance of a false arrest based on the facial
scanning is slim and an acceptable trade-off for the possibility of nabbing a criminal who might
otherwise remain at large.
"We expect the police to see results," said Joseph Atick, president and chief executive of
Visionics. "For criminals who object to it or have a warrant out there will be a deterrent factor
from people saying `I don't want to mess with this.' "
Detective Todd said that the expenses of operating the system, which would cost about $30,000,
were nominal, because the department would use officers who would otherwise patrol the
streets.
He said the system let the department "maximize the process of pointing out people we're looking
for without putting 20 more officers on the street and looking for those same people."
FaceIt has been used since 1998 in the London Borough of Newham, whose officials have
attributed a drop in crime to it. Last month, it was introduced at Keflavik Airport in Iceland.
But Atlanta and other cities have rejected the system because they were not convinced of its
effectiveness or accuracy.
Tampa first used face-recognition surveillance in a competing system at the Super Bowl at
Raymond James Stadium in January. Even though the system spotted 19 people thought to be
subjects of outstanding warrants for minor crimes, none were arrested because the crowd was
so large and because the number of matches exceeded the police's expectations.
"We thought we were ready to use it, but getting through the crowd and the architecture of the
stadium proved overwhelming," Detective Todd said.
The detective said Ybor City had a crime rate about that of the city over all. But the area, he
said, had a higher percentage of "crimes of opportunity" muggings, purse snatchings and the like
in which criminals focus on areas drawing large crowds, making it a good neighborhood to test
the system.
Gil Rizzo, 42, an account representative from Tampa relaxing on Seventh Avenue, Ybor's main
drag directly in front of one of the cameras agreed.
"I'm in favor of it because of the security," he said. "A lot of nights, there has been shoplifting,
women got mugged and robbed. It's safer because of the cameras."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Saturday July 07 08:31 AM EDT
Evolving Reality TV Tests the Audience's Endurance
By JULIE SALAMON The New York Times
The insipidly foolish "Big Brother 2" and "Real World," the big brother of
all reality TV shows, both had season premieres this week.
I believe television is going to be the test of the modern world, and that in
this new opportunity to see beyond the range of our vision we shall
discover either a new and unbearable disturbance of the general peace or
a saving radiance in the sky," E. B. White wrote in 1938, in "Removal,"
the opening essay in "One Man's Meat." "We shall stand or fall by
television of that I am quite sure."
We're definitely lying flat on our backs this week, with the disinterment of
"Big Brother," now called with characteristic wit "Big Brother 2." It's such
a shame. The show's failure last year in the United States, compared with
huge success in Europe, was a happy moment in American culture. For
an instant, we weren't the lowest common denominator. Even the French
proved to have terrible taste, tuning in by the millions this spring to watch
"Loft Story," their version of "Big Brother."
The American networks quickly remedied that, of course, with a slew of truly
gamy reality programs, bottoming out (let's hope) with "Fear Factor," the NBC
show that began by asking its contestants to spend time in a gravelike pit with
400 rats. It could have been worse. They could have been asked to watch 400
hours of reality television.
But only television critics have that kind of endurance and just barely. Despite the
advance publicity promising all kinds of enlivening tricks, including a new soap
opera format, "Big Brother 2" began Thursday night by defying audiences to stay
awake. Still, one of the changes is guaranteed to prove a huge improvement: the
show will appear only three nights a week instead of five or six, like last year.
Julie Chen, the news commentator turned game show host, has returned.
She was much more subdued, even apprehensive in her shiny purple jumpsuit,
as she introduced the contestants and explained the rules. This year, taking its cue
from the success of "Survivor," "Big Brother" will have its contestants vote one another
out of the house. Last year, the audience performed this task.
In just one year, the reality genre has developed its own set of clichés. The group of
contestants must be attractive, they usually include a gay person and a countervailing
homophobe. One of them, usually a woman, must be brassy and another must be sweet.
They will form alliances, and then betray their former partners as the end draws near.
On "Big Brother 2," the contestants include a bar owner, a bouncer, a single mother,
a physician and a woman (the brassy person) who was married two months ago at the
Elvis Chapel in Las Vegas. A man called Bunky confides to the audience that he's gay
but he isn't telling anyone in the house just yet. The designated conservative wonders
who the gay person is clearly he's been studying the reality show blueprint.
With each subsequent reality show, "Survivor" looks more and more like a masterwork
(from our supine position). The casting and editing give dramatic force to the unfolding
drama, and the contests require actual skill and endurance.
The contestants on the first night of "Big Brother 2" faced this challenge: Could they fill
a brand-new S.U.V. with groceries and then pile into the vehicle together? If they could
tolerate the squeeze for 60 seconds, they could eat the groceries for a week. If not, only
peanut butter and jelly.
But that wasn't all. When the minute was up, Ms. Chen gave the kicker. The last person
to leave the S.U.V. would win it!
There wasn't much mettle to test in this bunch. One hour and 36 minutes later they'd all
given up. "He kept digging a box in my knees," one whined. "It wasn't a comfortable
position," another complained.
The producers tried to compensate for the personality gaps with lots of close-up shots of
cleavage and torsos during a swimming pool break. In addition to this old-fashioned voyeurism,
cameras inside record everything. It was this spying that caused such an uproar last year,
until audiences learned what lobby security people have always known from their surveillance
of elevators and laundry rooms: most conversation is boring; usually nothing happens.
Meanwhile, the big brother of reality shows "Real World" had its season premiere this week on MTV.
Beginning its 10th season, the show has remained true to its formula, putting seven young strangers
together in a strange city. This summer's venue is described by the cast as a "phat" (what used to be
called "cool") brownstone in Greenwich Village.
There's no cash prize, whereas the remaining resident in the "Big Brother" house wins $500,000. But
the "Real World" producers know how to put on a show. It's filmed in lively fashion and with an eye
for genuine-seeming conflict and reconciliation. This cast is much like the ones that have come before:
young, exuberant, intense and attractive and full of talk. They talk about sex, their attraction for one
another, parents, homophobia and race. They wander wide-eyed through the streets of Manhattan
and gape at the lights of Times Square. After the insipid foolishness of "Big Brother," these moments of
youthful foolishness seem almost sweet, like small gifts.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tuesday July 10 07:06 AM EDT
Man Says Detroit Police Beat Him
A Detroit man is claiming that he took a beating from a police officer.
Police confirm that the man was hit repeatedly by an officer outside
of the Motor City Casino sometime last month.
The alleged beating began when casino security told the man to leave
the casino for being unruly. Police confirm that the man walked out
voluntarily.
After being kicked out of the casino, he says he headed to a friend's
car parked on Grand River. That's when the man says a Detroit
police officer blocked his path.
Surveillance cameras captured what happened next, but police won't
release the tapes.
Local 4 reports that it was a field training officer who hit the man.
Detroit police confirm that the officer's partner, a rookie female cop with less
than a year on the police force, was nearby.
Under order, Local 4 reports that the rookie partner used pepper spray on the man,
but then her training officer took the bottle.
The man says that the officer continued punching him. He isn't sure how
many times he was hit.
The man is disabled and he suffered a head injury in an accident several
years ago. He has difficulty walking, talking and suffers from seizures.
An investigation into the alleged beating is ongoing. More information is
expected to be released by the prosecutor's office Tuesday.
Stay tuned to ClickOnDetroit.com and Local 4 for more on this developing story.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wednesday July 11 6:46 PM ET
House Leader Joins ACLU Against Video Prying
By Amy Kane
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey teamed up with a
prominent civil-rights group on Wednesday to protest surveillance systems that match faces
of people on the street with a database of known criminals.
The Texas Republican and the American Civil Liberties Union urged local governments to
avoid such systems, saying they failed to curb crime and invaded privacy.
Tampa, Florida, currently uses such a ``biometric'' system, and Virginia Beach plans to
install one as well. The state of Colorado is to begin issuing driver's licenses only after
sorting through a photographic database of existing licenses.
Armey and the ACLU, often at odds on other issues, said they were alarmed by the
increasing use of software to compare photographs and video taken in public spaces with
databases of wanted felons and missing children.
``We believe that technology should not be used to create a 'virtual line-up' of Americans
who are not suspected of having done anything wrong,'' Armey and the ACLU said.
Armey will ask Congress's investigative arm to study to what extent the federal government
is funding surveillance technologies. He also plans to ask the House justice and government
reform committees to hold hearings on the subject.
Armey has been a vocal critic of governments' use of camera systems. In May, Armey
criticized the use of cameras to photograph the license plates of speeding drivers on roads
run by the National Park Service in the Washington, D.C., area.
CRIME-FIGHTING AND CAMERAS
Tampa drew attention to the use of biometrics in law enforcement when it used
face-recognition software to scan the faces of fans attending this year's Super Bowl football
game and compared them with a police database.
The city has since expanded the use of the software, hooking it to 36 existing closed-circuit
video cameras in its entertainment district.
Police in Virginia Beach have applied for a $150,000 federal grant to install 10 cameras
equipped with similar technology, according to The Virginian-Pilot newspaper.
Armey and the ACLU said the technology is not effective in fighting crime but instead
would lead to the questioning of innocent individuals and possibly racial profiling if the
cameras were placed in predominantly minority areas.
The ``potential for misuse'' of camera systems could be illustrated by a new Colorado law,
they said.
The Colorado law, which took effect on July 1, requires a three-dimensional image of an
applicant's face be taken along with the photograph for a new driver's license. The facial
map is stored in a database and compared with the faces of new applicants. If a new
applicant's photo matches an existing one in the database, he is denied a license.
The state said the law will prevent people from committing fraud by obtaining multiple
licenses under different names.
``This is not a law enforcement tool. We are not conducting surveillance,'' Colorado
Division of Motor Vehicles spokeswoman Dorothy Dalquist said.
The ACLU and Armey fear that this database, if paired with software, could make the
state agency into a ``Big Brother,'' who monitors and records an individual's movements.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The wireless road ahead
A new era in intelligent traffic management
Wireless systems in cars, such as the GPS satellite-linked navigation
system and integrated cellular Internet access in this Acura MD-X sport
utility vehicle, may soon be tapped to help fight traffic congestion.
By Charlie Schmidt TECHNOLOGY REVIEW
July 9 — Along route 90 near San Antonio, brake
lights are starting to flash. Twenty-five kilometers
away, Sam Mendoza is sipping coffee in the
region’s “TransGuide” traffic management center,
where 16 wall-mounted television monitors
display scenes from some of the 109 video
cameras peering at 100 kilometers of area
highways.
SUDDENLY, a beeping sound signals that traffic on
Route 90 has slowed below 40 kilometers per hour, as sensed
by some of the 1,700-odd magnetic-loop detectors embedded
in the region’s roads. Mendoza seizes a computer mouse and
zooms a highway-mounted camera toward the problem spot;
soon his monitor reveals two bearded men in the breakdown
lane struggling to fix a pickup truck’s flat tire. He quickly
types a keyboard command, causing an arrow on an
electronic sign hanging over the right-hand lane to flash from
green to yellow. The light warns drivers about the flat-fixers,
hopefully allowing them to avoid an accident or maybe find a
different route.
At first blush, the
system at Mendoza’s
disposal sure looks like a
smart way to fight traffic.
That’s what the federal
government thought a
decade ago when it began
funding “intelligent
highways,” a snappy term
for a laborious program of installing sensors, video cameras
and programmable signs along the nation’s highways. Today,
systems in place in San Antonio and 49 other urban areas are
indeed providing speedier accident response. But the cost is
mounting, with the total taxpayer tab topping $8.5 billion to
date. And despite that investment, controllers can’t detect
traffic beyond where the sensors are installed. Worse, they
have limited ways of alerting drivers; typically it’s either via
signs or by notifying the news media. And as any driver
knows, even a 10-minute delay until the news breaks on the
radio often means it’s too late to avoid the snarl.
Wireless World of Traffic
Wireless traffic management is taking hold worldwide with a
range of sensing and communications technologies-even
ways to charge higher tolls at rush hour. A few strategies:
Country
Program Name
Main Sensing Technology Getting Information to Drivers
Japan
Vehicle Information and Communication System
Magnetic-loop detectors in road surface Roadside
microwave/infrared beacons; information displayed
on dashboard digital maps
France
Visionaute
Magnetic-loop detectors; cameras and aerial
surveillance Dedicated radio receiver
accesses traffic information; estimated
travel times displayed on dashboard maps
U.K.
Trafficmaster
Infrared sensors at regular intervals track license plate
numbers for traffic speed sensing
Broadcast via radio frequencies; dashboard
maps display traffic speeds and delay times on highways
Singapore
Electronic Road
Pricing Scheme
Tag readers sense toll tags on passing
cars, charge higher tolls at rush-hour times
None directly to cars; drivers billed for tolls
Source: Technology Review
In short, it’s time to hit the brakes on Uncle Sam’s
approach to traffic management. Instead of a massive and
costly new physical infrastructure that takes a couple
decades to roll out, it turns out the road to truly intelligent
highways is leading to cars themselves-or more precisely, to
the wireless gadgets inside them. Tens of millions of vehicles
are now loaded with cell phones, electronic toll-paying tags,
onboard computers, two-way pagers and Global Positioning
System receivers; all promise to play a role in a new era of
wireless traffic management. That’s because, as millions of
drivers gab on their mobile phones, the radio signals from
those devices can double as handy traffic and speed sensors.
Meanwhile, devices ranging from the lowly pager to luxury
navigation systems are beginning to provide ways for drivers
to get real-time traffic information, customized for their
routes. Even better: for-profit wireless companies seem
willing to pick up part of the tab.
10 most dangerous intersections
Plenty of curves and obstacles lurk along this new
wireless superhighway. The technology needs refinement,
business models remain unproven and drivers will want
assurances their privacy won’t be invaded by new highway
listening posts. But the promise is hard to deny. Around the
country, from the crowded Washington Beltway to the San
Francisco Bay, incipient tests of wireless traffic sensing are
already hinting that these new technologies can augment-and
even eclipse-the original federal program, and do it in a
matter of years, not decades. “With wireless technology, we
don’t have to wait for the government to install loop
detectors,” asserts Kenneth Orski, president of Urban
Mobility, a Washington, DC-based transportation consulting
firm. “Private enterprise can set up cellular networks faster
and cheaper and extend intelligent highway capabilities to
virtually every highway in the nation.”
EMISSIONS AND ENERVATION
New ideas for battling traffic can’t come fast enough.
The Federal Highway Administration estimates that U.S.
drivers spend 4.3 billion agonizing hours each year stuck on
clogged roads. The average American now spends 36 hours
per year stuck in traffic, up from 11 hours in 1982, according
to a Texas Transportation Institute study released in May.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says tailpipe
emissions are responsible for about 58 percent of U.S.
emissions of carbon monoxide, 30 percent of nitrogen oxides
and 27 percent of volatile organic compounds, among other
pollutants.
These bleak realities prompted Congress to
begin funding embedded sensor systems in 1991.
But while the resulting “Intelligent Vehicle
Highway Systems Program” did unleash
technology against traffic, it was technology
developed in the 1980s. Today, only about 10 percent of U.S.
highways contain these sensors, a figure expected to increase
to no more than 20 percent by 2020. Although the benefits of
these systems vary by city, studies have generally shown
they mostly help by speeding emergency response, with no
hard proof that sensors have improved travel times.
All of which leaves the fast lane open for a wholly new
approach to traffic management, one where radio waves
replace magnetic loops as the key sensing technology. The
clear leader of the wireless pack, experts say, is the cell
phone. It was the mobile phone, after all, that first beat
roadway sensors to the punch: drivers simply began calling
911 to report accidents they’d witnessed. Today, every
American hillock, church steeple and high-rise seems to have
sprouted a cellular radio transmitter and antenna. Americans
own about 111 million cell phones-almost one for every two
people-with 46,000 new subscribers every day, according to
the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, a
trade group in Washington, DC.
Transforming this wireless communications
infrastructure into a traffic-sensing tool is the
next step. Radio waves emitted by a driver’s cell
phone during ordinary conversation can be used
to pinpoint not only a car’s location but its
speed and direction, too. The first application will
be for emergency use: the federal government
is requiring that, by October 2001, cell-phone
companies be able to provide precise mobile-phone location
when a 911 call is made. Eventually these new location
technologies could greatly extend and enhance today’s
intelligent-highway infrastructure, too.
The leading approach to analyzing cell-phone signals to
detect traffic patterns exploits the fact that these signals have
distinct “fingerprints” that change as the phone’s location
changes. That’s because a mobile-phone signal bounces off
buildings, hills and other obstacles before converging on a cell
tower, producing a unique signal pattern for every spot along
a roadway. Once these fingerprints are mapped and stored in
a database, it’s possible to create software that analyzes the
signal of a passing cell phone-by sampling it several times per
minute-to determine a car’s exact location, direction and
speed.
WIRELESS BELTWAY
Developing such a map is precisely the job of a white
Ford E-150 van that regularly cruises a 30-kilometer stretch
of the Washington, DC, Beltway, one of the nation’s
epicenters of both traffic and talk (60 percent of area
residents own cell phones). The van is owned by San Ramon,
CA-based U.S. Wireless, a leader in the nascent business of
generating traffic information. As the van tools down a
congested stretch of I-495 from Springfield, VA, to Andrews
Air Force Base, MD, a passenger talks on a cell phone.
Every nuance of the signal fingerprints from that
conversation is captured by a network of antennas and
computers the company has installed on office and industrial
rooftops lining the highway.
Then, thanks to a GPS receiver system in the van, each
fingerprint is matched with an exact spot on the route. Later,
when cars with cell-phone-chatting occupants drive by, the
U.S. Wireless computer picks up the fingerprint, finds a
match from its database, and-presto-spits out a location. By
gauging how the fingerprint changes over time, the system’s
algorithm can calculate direction and speed, too. “Wherever
we set up the network, we’ll be able to monitor vehicle
density, speed and acceleration, and provide that information
to anyone that’s willing to pay us,” says Howard Blank, U.S.
Wireless’s vice president of technology.
To help support this grand experiment in
cell-phone-signal cartography, the Maryland and Virginia
transportation agencies are ponying up a combined $400,000.
Initial results are encouraging, says David Lovell, assistant
professor of transportation engineering at the University of
Maryland, who is evaluating the test for the state of
Maryland. The technology “tracks the trajectory of the
vehicle continuously, which allows you to get a better feel for
the pattern of congestion on the highway” than is provided by
magnetic-loop sensors, he says. The test is continuing, but a
report assessing its results is not due until December. Lovell
says, however, that “everything appears to be working well
so far.”
Still, not everyone is convinced by the tests. “It’s really a
bizarre way to do this,” says Paul Najarian, director of
telecommunications at the Intelligent Transportation Society
of America, a research organization based in Washington,
DC. “Every time a building comes up or goes down they
have to recalibrate it. And the local topography changes
according to the seasons. They basically have to run their van
through the coverage areas over and over again to keep it all
up to date.”
U.S. Wireless officials counter that recalibration costs
are trivial compared to loop detector installation and
maintenance. But while the company labors to perfect its
technology, chief competitor TruePosition of King of Prussia,
PA, is developing an alternative approach that never needs
recalibration. TruePosition’s scheme is based on
triangulation-determining cell-phone location from the times it
takes signals to reach three or more stations. By also
analyzing the angle at which a signal arrives, the company
can accomplish this feat using just two towers, says Matthew
Ward, TruePosition’s manager of strategic product
development. Speed is calculated from changes in location
over time, as with the U.S. Wireless technology. TruePosition
is currently focusing on providing technology for 911
phone-finding. But Ward says the company plans to test its
technology for traffic applications.
Beyond cell phones, there’s another wireless technology
already beefing up traffic reports in some areas: those
increasingly common toll-paying, windshield-mounted radio
tags. Normally, a special tollbooth “tag reader” senses the
passing device, records the code number associated with the
owner’s account and subtracts the toll-and that’s it. But the
E-ZPass tags used by more than four million New York-area
drivers now double as speed and traffic detectors.
List of funniest intersections puts a grin on street grids
To use the tags for this new purpose, the Transcom
coalition of regional transportation agencies mounts readers
at regular intervals (ranging from 0.4 to 2.4 kilometers) along
a highway. By analyzing the time it takes for a tagged car to
pass between the readers, special software can calculate the
speed of traffic along key arteries, with the results displayed
in a regional traffic-management center in Jersey City, NJ.
Just as Sam Mendoza does in San Antonio, operators
publicize any snarls on electronic roadside signs or by alerting
the news media. By the end of this year, more than 300
kilometers of highway stretching from Hartford, CT, to
Trenton, NJ, will bristle with tag readers for speed detection,
with Massachusetts and Pennsylvania eyeing the idea.
Ultimately, it might be possible to complement-or even
replace-this growing arsenal of sensors with a third wireless
device: the GPS receiver showing up in more and more cars,
mainly as a navigation aid (see “The Commuter Computer,”
TR June 2000). GPS could, in theory, provide a means of
continuously tracking a vehicle’s location. But although traffic
planners would love to collect all those rolling position figures
and squeeze the numbers for speed and traffic data, it will be
hard to pull off, at least for now. That’s because GPS
receivers are just that-receivers, which determine position
from incoming satellite signals-and don’t send position data
unless a driver initiates a link, as when calling police for help
or looking for directions. Such calls are relatively rare
compared to cell-phone chatter; besides, reading a car’s
position would involve eavesdropping on the content of a call
rather than just sensing a signal.
PAYMENTS AND PRIVACY
But before these emerging traffic-management
technologies can really make their mark, some critical
questions remain to be answered. One of the most basic is
who will pay. “The technology is available,” says Najarian of
the Intelligent Transportation Society. “But what’s missing is
a revenue flow tying all these elements together.”
Would you be willing to cede some privacy to reduce traffic?
Yes. I'd do anything to sit in less traffic!
No. My privacy is too important to me.
Vote to see results
U.S. Wireless, for one, hopes to sell its data to state
agencies, allowing them to broadcast updates via the standard
news reports and warning signs, plus any future avenues that
evolve. It’s also a good bet that many drivers will pay at least
a modest fee to save some of those 4.3 billion hours spent
stuck in traffic. Cue, a pager company in Irving, CA, is
already charging $10 to $15 a month for personalized traffic
information in more than 60 U.S. markets. Cue collects its
data from all available sources, including loop detectors,
helicopter news reports and, eventually, cell-phone signals.
After a customer programs a route into a two-way pager, the
company sends personalized alerts. These can be read as
text on the pager or heard through a voice synthesizer.
Convincing people to pay for such services means
getting them very precise information in a form they can use,
notes Gerald Conover, a technology manager at Ford Motor
and chairman of the International Affairs Council at the
Intelligent Transportation Society of America. “Say I’m in
Manhattan,” he says. “What I want is the real-time traffic
environment on the street that I’m driving on, as well as the
streets above and below me. I want the sensor data on a map
so I can make instant decisions.”
On this front, GPS could really strut its stuff. While GPS
won’t send traffic data, it might play a key role in helping
drivers receive it. Using a wireless link, a driver might
download real-time traffic data that an onboard computer
could filter based on the car’s GPS-derived position. If the
news was bad, navigation software could offer alternate
routes. This information could be paid for by subscription, or
delivered free along with advertising (geared to location in
many cases: “McDonald’s at the next exit!”).
But even if the right business models and
communications methods are found, another concern
remains: guaranteeing privacy. Drivers worry their toll tags,
cell phones and other gadgets could be used to track their
movements for market research, surveillance or to mete out
speeding tickets, says James X. Dempsey, deputy director of
the Center for Democracy & Technology, a Washington,
DC-based privacy organization. “The real concern here is
that the information could be compiled and used to categorize,
characterize and judge people,” says Dempsey.
The fears of E-ZPass owners on this front were tempered
when Transcom agreed to scramble identifying
information before launching the program in
1995. But the solution to the cell-phone privacy
problem is somewhat less clear.
Cell-phone trackers U.S. Wireless and TruePosition insist they
don’t record caller identity on their networks. “We couldn’t
care less who the callers are,” says U.S.
Wireless’s Howard Blank. “We use dummy identifiers like ‘caller
number one’ and ‘caller number two.’” But
company promises aren’t backed up by law. While telecom
companies are barred from disclosing someone’s identity
without consent, Dempsey notes that up-starts like U.S.
Wireless technically aren’t telecom carriers, and so they
aren’t covered by such restrictions. The Cellular
Communications Industry Association, a Washington,
DC-based trade organization, recently proposed that the FCC
develop privacy guidelines that include a provision for
notifying customers of how their cell signals might be used.
Another view is that people will gladly cede some of
their privacy for the chance to beat a traffic jam. Highway
administrators in San Francisco, one of the first cities to
explore cell-phone traffic sensing in detail, are about to put
that view to the test. The region’s Metropolitan
Transportation Commission is poised to sign a six-year, $5.2
million contract to study whether the U.S. Wireless approach
can augment the brainpower of the city’s
magnetic-loop-based “intelligent highways.”
What do you think? Post your thoughts on our discussion board.
“We’d like to use the system to develop highway speed
profiles that drivers could use,” says Michael Berman, project
manager with the Bay Area commission. First, though,
they’re convening focus groups and conducting surveys on
the privacy question.
Will the public accept it? That’s an open question. But
has the technology arrived to lead traffic management into
the wireless age? That call has already been made.
Copyright © 2001 Technology Review, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thursday July 19 09:56 PM EDT
Festival Goers Say Police Roughed Them Up
Violence erupted at Akron's AfricanFest over the weekend,
generating seven arrests and sending three people to the hospital.
The incident has sparked an investigation as to whether Akron
police used the appropriate level of force at the scene.
NewsChannel5 reports that surveillance video may hold the
key to the case.
Lane Field in Akron was peaceful Wednesday, as people
enjoyed the great weather. Very few remnants remain of the
more than 2,000 who showed up at the park for AfricanFest
Sunday.
Jaman Turner (pictured, above) attended the festival and said that
a fight erupted, causing police to allegedly overreact.
"He tried to push me onto the ground," Turner, who was arrested, said.
"The dude had me in a headlock."
Devin Sanders, who is four months pregnant, also claims that she was
unfairly roughed up by police.
"And they just picked me up and threw me," she said. "They tried to
shock me with one of those things."
But even though the incident is the subject of an internal investigation,
Akron police believe that they acted properly. They were forced to
arrest seven people for inciting violence and resisting arrest.
A public library's security cameras captured some of the action Sunday
around 8 p.m.
The tape shows crowds of people running out of the park, and then an
officer leading a man in handcuffs.
Witnesses said that police officers were responding to a fight and
overreacted.
Police Capt. Michael Madden said that two people in the crowd attacked
the officers first.
"They were assaulted by two juveniles, two 17-year-old young men,"
Madden said. "There was apparently some use of force to resolve the
situation and to get them out of the area."
Madden said that officers are trained to use pepper spray when
facing a hostile crowd.
Meanwhile, the alleged victims and some of the arrested will picket the
Akron Police Department on Friday, calling for a full investigation.
The biggest dispute seems to be whether officers went after people who
were not involved in the fight and whether the alleged victims were
provoking police.
"Just because you're a police officer and have a badge (doesn't mean
you can) hit people," concerned mother Tammy Turner said. "You can't
just say, 'Hey, get out of the park.'"
One of the officers with whom NewsChannel spoke said that one of
the people arrested at AfricanFest threatened police with a baseball bat,
and that's why officers were forced to use mace at the scene.
Unfortunately, the incident has put the future of AfricanFest in question.
The African Arts Festival has been held in Akron for the past 20 years.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Politech archive on surveillance cameras:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=cameras
Politech archive on Tampa's cameras:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=ybor
---
From: "crdrapes"
To:
Subject: RE: Florida cameras: baynews9.com article
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 17:19:00 -0600
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
http://baynews9.com/newsstory.asp?storyname=2001/July/19/ybor
CITY COUNCIL SPLITS ON YBOR CAMERAS, GRECO TO HAVE LAST WORD.
The Tampa City Council took a fully-informed look at Ybor City's
controversial high-tech face-scanning software this afternoon.
The council held a public hearing on the matter and there was emotional
debate on both sides of the issue. When the dust settled, the council split
down the middle with a 3-3 vote on whether or not to do away with the
face-scanning software. The deciding vote will be cast by Tampa Mayor, Dick
Greco, who has said he favors the controversial surveillance system. Greco
is on vacation and wasn't immediately available for comment on today's vote.
Late last week, several members of the council expressed alarm at the
presence of the system after noting they "had no idea" they had voted for
it. The outcry prompted today's hearing and subsequent vote.
[...]
*********
http://www.sptimes.com/News/072001/Columns/Arguments__pro_and_co.shtml
Arguments, pro and con, on Ybor City spy in the sky
2001-07-20 05:42:24
By HOWARD TROXLER
St. Petersburg Times, published July 20, 2001
By my count, 19 citizens addressed the Tampa City Council on Thursday on
the topic of using face-recognition software to scan the public streets of
Ybor City. Of these, 15 spoke against the system, and four spoke in favor.
By my count, 19 citizens addressed the Tampa City Council on Thursday on
the topic of using face-recognition software to scan the public streets of
Ybor City. Of these, 15 spoke against the system, and four spoke in favor.
Of the four in favor, one was from the New Jersey company that is trying to
sell the system. One was from another security company in Pinellas County.
One was a self-described housewife who said people who lead "immoral lives"
shouldn't be on the street anyway. The fourth was an energetic gentleman
who alleged that some of the anti-camera speakers were "on dope." In the
end, the City Council split 3-3 on whether to ask Mayor Dick Greco to kill
the experiment. The council will vote again in two weeks when the seventh
member, Charlie Miranda, will cast the potentially deciding vote.
[...]
*********
http://www.montrealgazette.com/editorial/pages/010719/5021112.html
Privacy law will not protect petty criminals
2001-07-20 05:22:20
A July 17 report in The Gazette suggested that the new federal Personal
Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act could permit a robber
to walk into a bank or convenience store and demand that the surveillance
camera be turned off prior to committing his crime. The new federal
private-sector privacy law does no such thing. On the contrary, it draws a
careful balance between personal privacy rights and the legitimate
information needs of a modern society.
[...]
*********
http://www.sptimes.com/News/071901/Floridian/Click_BEEP_Face_captu.shtml
Click. BEEP! Face captured
2001-07-19 05:42:33
By LANE DeGREGORY
St. Petersburg Times, published July 19, 2001
Out for a night of fun in Ybor City? You're being watched by 36 unblinking
eyes. And one might take a picture of your face to see if you look like a
criminal.
[...]
*********
http://www.uniontrib.com/news/metro/20010717-9999_1n17cameras.html
Smart cameras at casinos spark a debate on privacy
2001-07-18 05:50:25
By Chet Barfield
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 17, 2001
Most casino gamblers realize they are being watched by hidden cameras. But
many may not know about technology that analyzes facial features as
distinctly as a fingerprint. California casinos are increasingly using
surveillance cameras enhanced with facial-recognition technology called
biometrics.
[...]
Most of Biometrica's 120 client casinos get a computerized list of
"unwanteds" that Nevada casinos have passed around in hard-copy form for
decades. The database, updated monthly, has up to 1,500 photo profiles,
including names, methods and accomplices. The casinos also get software to
create their own in-house lists.
[...]
*********
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/opinion/31646_videoed.shtml
Cameras may help identify profiling cases
2001-07-18 05:37:53
Cameras may help identify profiling cases
Wednesday, July 18, 2001
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Considering the seeming or real proliferation of citizen complaints about
racial profiling, the Seattle City Council's unanimous decision to
experiment with video cameras in police cars comes none too soon. The third
and most credible set of eyes -- to be provided via non-stop electronic
surveillance -- promises to discount or prove allegations from minority
communities that police are stopping people of color solely because they
are not white.
[...]
**********
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,167846,00.html
Tampa Gets Ready For Its Closeup
2001-07-17 05:07:03
Monday, Jul. 16, 2001
Tampa Gets Ready For Its Closeup
Thanks to the city's latest crime prevention program, Tampa residents
and visitors are captured on film -- not by friends or loved ones, but
by automated cameras
[...]
**********
Politech archive on surveillance cameras:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=cameras
Politech archive on Tampa's cameras:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=ybor
http://baynews9.com/newsstory.asp?storyname=2001/July/19/ybor
CITY COUNCIL SPLITS ON YBOR CAMERAS, GRECO TO HAVE LAST WORD.
The Tampa City Council took a fully-informed look at Ybor City's
controversial high-tech face-scanning software this afternoon.
The council held a public hearing on the matter and there was emotional
debate on both sides of the issue. When the dust settled, the council split
down the middle with a 3-3 vote on whether or not to do away with the
face-scanning software. The deciding vote will be cast by Tampa Mayor, Dick
Greco, who has said he favors the controversial surveillance system. Greco
is on vacation and wasn't immediately available for comment on today's vote.
Late last week, several members of the council expressed alarm at the
presence of the system after noting they "had no idea" they had voted for
it. The outcry prompted today's hearing and subsequent vote.
[...]
*********
http://www.sptimes.com/News/072001/Columns/Arguments__pro_and_co.shtml
Arguments, pro and con, on Ybor City spy in the sky
2001-07-20 05:42:24
By HOWARD TROXLER
St. Petersburg Times, published July 20, 2001
By my count, 19 citizens addressed the Tampa City Council on Thursday on
the topic of using face-recognition software to scan the public streets of
Ybor City. Of these, 15 spoke against the system, and four spoke in favor.
By my count, 19 citizens addressed the Tampa City Council on Thursday on
the topic of using face-recognition software to scan the public streets of
Ybor City. Of these, 15 spoke against the system, and four spoke in favor.
Of the four in favor, one was from the New Jersey company that is trying to
sell the system. One was from another security company in Pinellas County.
One was a self-described housewife who said people who lead "immoral lives"
shouldn't be on the street anyway. The fourth was an energetic gentleman
who alleged that some of the anti-camera speakers were "on dope." In the
end, the City Council split 3-3 on whether to ask Mayor Dick Greco to kill
the experiment. The council will vote again in two weeks when the seventh
member, Charlie Miranda, will cast the potentially deciding vote.
[...]
*********
http://www.montrealgazette.com/editorial/pages/010719/5021112.html
Privacy law will not protect petty criminals
2001-07-20 05:22:20
A July 17 report in The Gazette suggested that the new federal Personal
Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act could permit a robber
to walk into a bank or convenience store and demand that the surveillance
camera be turned off prior to committing his crime. The new federal
private-sector privacy law does no such thing. On the contrary, it draws a
careful balance between personal privacy rights and the legitimate
information needs of a modern society.
[...]
*********
http://www.sptimes.com/News/071901/Floridian/Click_BEEP_Face_captu.shtml
Click. BEEP! Face captured
2001-07-19 05:42:33
By LANE DeGREGORY
St. Petersburg Times, published July 19, 2001
Out for a night of fun in Ybor City? You're being watched by 36 unblinking
eyes. And one might take a picture of your face to see if you look like a
criminal.
[...]
*********
http://www.uniontrib.com/news/metro/20010717-9999_1n17cameras.html
Smart cameras at casinos spark a debate on privacy
2001-07-18 05:50:25
By Chet Barfield
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 17, 2001
Most casino gamblers realize they are being watched by hidden cameras. But
many may not know about technology that analyzes facial features as
distinctly as a fingerprint. California casinos are increasingly using
surveillance cameras enhanced with facial-recognition technology called
biometrics.
[...]
Most of Biometrica's 120 client casinos get a computerized list of
"unwanteds" that Nevada casinos have passed around in hard-copy form for
decades. The database, updated monthly, has up to 1,500 photo profiles,
including names, methods and accomplices. The casinos also get software to
create their own in-house lists.
[...]
*********
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/opinion/31646_videoed.shtml
Cameras may help identify profiling cases
2001-07-18 05:37:53
Cameras may help identify profiling cases
Wednesday, July 18, 2001
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Considering the seeming or real proliferation of citizen complaints about
racial profiling, the Seattle City Council's unanimous decision to
experiment with video cameras in police cars comes none too soon. The third
and most credible set of eyes -- to be provided via non-stop electronic
surveillance -- promises to discount or prove allegations from minority
communities that police are stopping people of color solely because they
are not white.
[...]
**********
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,167846,00.html
Tampa Gets Ready For Its Closeup
2001-07-17 05:07:03
Monday, Jul. 16, 2001
Tampa Gets Ready For Its Closeup
Thanks to the city's latest crime prevention program, Tampa residents
and visitors are captured on film -- not by friends or loved ones, but
by automated cameras
[...]
**********
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
July 18
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, on video cameras in police cars:
Considering the seeming or real proliferation of citizen complaints about racial profiling, the Seattle
City Council's unanimous decision to experiment with video cameras in police cars comes none too
soon.
The third and most credible set of eyes - to be provided via non-stop electronic surveillance -
promises to discount or prove allegations from minority communities that police are stopping people
of color solely because they are not white.
Whatever the cameras show after the one-year trial period, city officials will have the knowledge they
need to move forward responsibly.
At this juncture, most citizens are justifiably unsure who's telling the truth and, given the latest incident
of alleged racial profiling, concern is certainly not limited to the way white officers and black citizens
are interacting.
... While video cameras are not tailor-made for every situation - an obvious shortcoming is the
restricted field of view - they are still the best option available at this point to determine whose reality
is most valid. Activating the cameras in police cars dedicated to patrol duty - whether routine, traffic
or driving Under the Influence - is also sensible because that's how officers most often come into
contact with the public.
No longer than a year should elapse before the council receives a report detailing what the cameras
captured. The return on this $205,000 investment promises to be invaluable.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Monday July 23 07:43 AM EDT
Tiny, cheap cameras draw unscrupulous users
By Sara Burnett Daily Herald Staff Writer
They may be anywhere - in the light above your desk, tucked inside a fake tissue box or
cleverly disguised as your date's cell phone.
And they could be recording your every move, whether you like it or not.
First made popular as highly priced "nanny cams" designed to help affluent parents keep an
eye on their baby sitters, wireless cameras have become more affordable - and less
conspicuous - in recent years.
While the drop in price has made the cameras more accessible to the general public, the
proliferation of the tiny gizmos also has some people concerned. Because as the technology
has advanced, so have the possibilities that it may be used for less-than-honorable
purposes - like to post pictures of you in a dressing room on the Internet.
"There are so many things you can do, and (the cameras) are so simple to use, but there's a
lot of wackos out there," said Jean Hitchell, an employee at Spy Connection, a Chicago
store that sells security and surveillance products. "It can also be a nightmare."
Three South Elgin women lived that nightmare when, in 1998, police said their employer
secretly videotaped them using the bathroom in his home. Terrence McCarron, whose case
is up for appeal, was charged with the crimes after a California police officer said he
received lewd photographs from McCarron via the Internet. The women were all younger
than 18 when the secret video was taken, police said.
Then, in June, a Barrington Area Unit District 220 teacher admitted to hiding a small
wireless camera in a unisex staff bathroom at Lines Elementary School. And just last week,
a camera was found in a staff bathroom at the Elgin Mental Health Center.
Police still are investigating those cases and have not said yet whether the cameras were
transmitting images or if images were disseminated on the Internet.
But the incidents are enough to have some police sending a warning.
The tiny cameras, which can be as small as a quarter, generally operate off a battery and
have no wires. Instead, they are able to send images to a remote receiver via a set
frequency. Images also can be sent to a TV, where they can be recorded onto a VCR,
Hitchell said.
Most of the time, the reasons people buy the cameras are on the up and up, retailers say.
Rich McCue, the retail manager at CompUSA in Schaumburg, said some people buy the
cameras as a kind of security system or a way to keep watch over their children while
they're at work.
One program, called Xanboo, allows people to observe their homes, control lighting or
detect a drop in temperature at their house or place of business by simply logging on to the
company's Web site.
But there's no telling for what purpose a person is going to use the cameras - and their
prices are falling.
Once sold for $1,000 to $2,000, such "security systems" and wireless cameras now can be
had for $50 to $200. At Spy Connection, Hitchell is particularly proud of a color camera
no larger than a matchbox that currently sells for $149. A few years ago, a similar set-up
would have cost thousands of dollars, she said.
Among the other items sold at the store - and at places like Best Buy and Radio Shack -
are cameras the size of golf balls.
"We have cameras you can put in your pocket, even in your buttonhole, and they're almost
undetectable," Hitchell said. "You don't see them, you don't hear them."
But that doesn't necessarily mean the uncouth user is going to get away with using the
machines for anything criminal.
It is illegal for anyone to record a person without his or her consent in places like
restrooms, tanning beds, dressing rooms and hotel bedrooms.
And as technology has made it easier for people to buy and use the cameras, it also has
made it easier for police to track and find the people who use them illegally, said Elgin
Police Lt. Scott Davis, who supervises the department's major investigations division.
Generally, wireless cameras cannot transmit images to a receiver that is more than 75 to
100 feet away, and the signals weaken every time they have to go through a wall, Davis
said. So when a camera is found, the receiver usually can't be too far away. Using a
frequency locator - available at places like Radio Shack - police generally don't have too
tough a time finding the destination of any images.
"If you can get to the computer (where the receiver is located), that's all," Davis said. "That
tells you everything you need to know."
The same kind of frequency locator, or "bug smasher," used by police can work for anyone
who's paranoid - or just curious - about whether they're being watched, Davis said.
With the tiny cameras "flying out the door," as Hitchell said, such an investment might not
be a bad idea.
"All in all, it's not that difficult (to track transmitting cameras)," Davis added. "And it's better
than walking around scared all the time."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wednesday July 25 02:22 AM EDT
San Diegan Supports Red Light Cameras
The issue of red light cameras has spawned some rather heated discussion.
Typically the most vocal side of the argument has come from
camera opponents. But one San Diego man is speaking out in
favor of the cameras.
Joe Ditler says he wants to see the cameras turned back on.
Ditler says that ever since the city's 19 red light cameras were
shut off, drivers have had a cavalier attitude about running red
lights.
"They're saying 'Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, can't get me!'" Ditler
said.
Ditler commutes to the Embarcadero area everyday. He says the intersection of Grape and
Harbor streets has always been unpleasant, but: "When the cameras came on it all
changed," Ditler said.
"People were obeying the law. They had some respect for the other drivers. I thought it
was brilliant."
Critics argue that the idea was nothing more than a money-making scheme, with Lockheed
Martin taking a cut of every ticket served. Others argued that the cameras were an
unconstitutional arm of Big Brother.
But Ditler still stands by the cameras. He says they serve as a deterrent to reckless driving,
and without them drivers will be too eager to take chances.
The case remains in a San Diego courtroom. Whatever the decision, it will likely have
repercussions around the country and around the world.
City Of San Diego Camera Locations
College Area College Avenue S/B to E/B Montezuma Road El Cajon Boulevard W/B
through 43rd Street
Downtown A Street E/B to 163 Fwy (10 Street) F Street W/B through 16th Street
Harbor Drive S/B to E/B Grape Street
Kearny Mesa Aero Drive W/B to S/B Murphy Canyon Road
Mira Mesa/Miramar Black Mountain Road S/B through Gemini Avenue Black
Mountain Road S/B to E/B Mira Mesa Boulevard Mira Mesa Boulevard E/B through
Scranton Road Miramar Road W/B through Camino Ruiz
Mission Beach/Pacific Beach Garnet Avenue W/B through Ingraham Street Garnet
Avenue E/B to N/B Mission Bay Drive Mission Boulevard S/B through Garnet Avenue
Mission Bay Drive N/B to W/B Grand Avenue
Rancho Bernardo/Carmel Mountain Bernardo Center Drive N/B to W/B Rancho
Bernardo Road Carmel Mountain Road E/B to N/B Rancho Carmel Drive
San Ysidro Palm Avenue E/B through Beyer Way
South Bay Harbor Drive W/B through 32nd Street
South San Diego Imperial Avenue W/B through Euclid Avenue
University City La Jolla Village Drive W/B to S/B Towne Centre Drive
Additional San Diego County Camera Locations
El Cajon Broadway W/B through Mollison Avenue Fletcher Parkway W/B to S/B
Magnolia Avenue Fletcher Parkway W/B to S/B Marshall Avenue Fletcher Parkway N/B
to W/B Navajo Road Main Street W/B through Mollison Avenue Washington Avenue
W/B to S/B El Cajon Boulevard
Poway Camino Del Norte E/B through Pomerado Road Poway Road W/B through
Community Road Poway Road E/B to N/B Pomerado Road Scripps Poway Parkway E/B
through Pomerado Road Ted Williams Parkway E/B to N/B Pomerado Road
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
WJLA
Thursday July 26 06:53 PM EDT
Red Light Cameras Expected to Boost Tickets by Thousands
The District stands to collect a whole lot of money with its newest traffic
technology. The Washington Times reports the city should receive more
than 160 million dollars in traffic fines by 2004.
The traffic system includes two types of cameras which will be used all
over the city. The radar cameras are designed to nab speeders and the
red light cameras are designed to catch red light runners.
The Times reports the city's contract with Lockheed Martin, who designs
and operates the systems, indicates the District is counting on sending out
approximately 80,000 tickets a month by the time the system is fully operational
on August first. That's a far cry from the 10,000 speeding tickets issued in all
of last year.
The tickets will carry fines of between 30 and 200 dollars per violation.
Copyright 2001 ABC 7 WJLA-TV
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Camera Fines Could Top $160 Million
NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, July 27, 2001
WASHINGTON - The U.S. capital expects to collect more than $160
million in traffic fines by 2004 from automated law enforcement
cameras designed to catch red-light runners and speeders, the
Washington Times reported Thursday.
Washington's contract with Lockheed Martin IMS indicates the city
is counting on sending out an estimated 80,000 additional speeding
tickets a month by the time the program is fully operational on Aug.
1.
"They are trying to exploit underposted speed limits and cash in on
motorists driving with the flow of traffic," said Richard Diamond,
spokesman for House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas. "They
are shaking down commuters, tourists and D.C. residents."
The city has already taken in more than $12 million from over
230,000 paid red-light violations since the cameras were installed.
The contracts between Washington and Lockheed call for 39
red-light cameras across the city and a modification that authorizes
Lockheed to operate the photo radar system, the Times said.
According to the red-light camera contract, signed in 1999,
Lockheed expects to net more than $44 million by 2004, the year
the contract ends. The District's share is expected to top $117
million.
Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., has joined a growing chorus of lawmakers
concerned about the electronic surveillance of ordinary Americans.
He cited the face-recognition video-surveillance technology used in
surveying 100,000 unsuspecting faces in Tampa Bay during this
year's Super Bowl as an ominous sign of things to come.
"American citizens and visitors alike are under constant
surveillance, often aware they are being watched, but unable to do
anything about it," Barr said.
Washington issued about 10,000 speeding tickets last year, the
report said.
The citations will cost speeders from $30 to $200, with $29 of each
paid ticket going to Lockheed. For red-light violations, Lockheed
receives $32 for each $75 ticket that is paid, with the red-light
camera contract assuming a 75 percent payment rate.
"It sort of raises the specter of the old speed traps that we had years
ago where local jurisdictions were dependent upon that money"
collected from speeders, Barr said.
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Ted VanCleave
(415) 666-0719
ted@giraffecam.com
http://www.giraffecam.com
Hostage Cam -- New Aerial Surveillance Tool for Law Enforcement
San Francisco -- February 17, 1998 (INB) -- Kidnappers beware: law enforcement
officers have an innovative new tool designed to assist them in rescuing hostages.
Hostage Cam is an all aluminum telescoping mast with a video camera, high gain
parabolic directional microphone and search light mounted on the top.
The Hostage Cam can be elevated up to 55 feet in the air with the camera and
equipment controlled remotely and safely from the ground. Hostage Cam can
peer over fences and buildings like a giant periscope, giving law officers a safe,
bird’s eye view of a dangerous situation.
S.W.A.T. team members can even be equipped with Dick Tracy-like, wrist mounted
mini-monitors and view the Hostage Cam broadcast via wireless transmission. The
Hostage Cam is also useful for search and rescue operations.
The Hostage Cam is designed and manufactured by Giraffe Cam, makers of blimp
based aerial photography and video equipment
(http://www.giraffecam.com/hostagecam.htm).
# # #
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Links
Ultrak, Inc. (Nasdaq: ULTK)
Web Site: http://www.ultrak.com
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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