1. http://www.msnbc.com/news/706224.asp?0si=-&cp1=1 A closed circuit TV camera overlooks a sidewalk in London, where such surveillance has become common. D.C. cops build surveillance network New system will link hundreds of public cameras By Jess Bravin THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 A camera mounted on the roof of police headquarters here peers down at pedestrians approaching the steps of the Capitol half a mile away. Then it zooms in on a couple who are climbing the stairs, unaware they are being watched. Inside headquarters, a huge digital image of the couple is displayed on floor-to-ceiling monitors in a darkened high-tech command center, the hub of what will soon be one of the nations most extensive public surveillance networks. THE NEW SYSTEM will link hundreds of cameras that already monitor mass-transit stations, monuments and schools with new digital cameras that will be installed to watch over streets, shopping areas and neighborhoods. In the context of Sept. 11, we have no choice but to accept greater use of this technology, says Stephen Gaffigan, who heads the Washington Metropolitan Police Department project. He says city officials have studied the pervasive public surveillance in Britain, where the government has placed more than two million cameras throughout the country in recent years. We are intrigued by that model, Mr. Gaffigan says. Tuesday morning, in response to the latest terror alert issued by the Justice Department, Washington police activated the command center, which was first used on Sept. 11. Officers from a host of federal authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Secret Service, Capitol Police and Amtrak Police, joined city officers in monitoring key buildings around Washington. The room will stay in operation until federal officials end the terror alert, Mr. Gaffigan says. The cameras have been programmed to scan public areas automatically, and officers can take over manual control if they see something they want to examine more closely. But right now, the system has no biometric software that will permit an automated match between a face in the crowd and a computerized photo of a suspect. Were looking at that technology but have made no decisions about how or whether to use it, Mr. Gaffigan says. CIVIL LIBERTARIANS FEAR ABUSE Many American police agencies already use some video surveillance of public spaces, particularly in areas with high pedestrian traffic, such as Baltimores Inner Harbor and the Ybor City entertainment district in Tampa, Fla. Around the country, airports, railroad stations and bus terminals are routinely monitored. Some cities have also put cameras in busy intersections to gauge traffic or catch drivers who run red lights. But the plans in Washington go far beyond what is in use in other American cities, and some civil libertarians are alarmed about the potential for abuse. Technology is giving government what amounts to Supermans vision, says Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union in New York and the advocacy groups specialist on science and technology issues. There are few legal restrictions on video surveillance in city streets, Mr. Steinhardt notes, because courts have generally found that people surrender their right to privacy by entering a public space. But by setting up a central point of surveillance, he says, it becomes likely that the cameras will be more frequently used and more frequently abused. Its like the song by Sting where every move you make, every step you take is recorded, says Gary T. Marx, emeritus professor of sociology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of several books on police surveillance. Almost all of the surveillance innovations are easily justifiable, he says. The major concern is: Where is it leading? Eventually, the Washington system will bring together cameras operated by different agencies across the metropolitan area, potentially including video feeds from shopping malls, apartment buildings and other privately owned businesses. These images will be able to be viewed at the command post and broadcast to computer units already installed in most of the citys 1,000 squad cars. The police say they are aware of privacy concerns and plan to stop far short of the level of constant surveillance the technology allows. The cameras run by other agencies wont be monitored by the police unless they are alerted to a specific problem, Mr. Gaffigan says, and the video feeds wont be recorded unless theres a particular reason to do so. That doesnt reassure everyone. You are building in a surveillance infrastructure, and how its used now is not likely how its going to be used two years from now or five years from now, says Mr. Steinhardt of the ACLU. TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES EASE USE While still expensive, advances in technology are making it easier for police to use video surveillance. Earlier technologies, such as the 36-camera system in Tampa, use analog videotape and are wired through fiber-optic cable. New cameras use digital images, which can be stored and manipulated more easily, and can be operated by radio commands and transmitted wirelessly, saving the cost of installing cable. Moreover, analog cameras can now be routed through video servers that will convert their pictures into digital signals. It makes use of existing infrastructure, says Michael Engstrom, the U.S. general manager for Axis Communications AB, a Swedish manufacturer that supplied 50 video servers to Washington at a cost of about $2,000 each. All you do is plug it into a computer network, he says, and the images can be distributed to the largest extent, over an intranet or even the Internet. The centerpiece of the Washington system is the $7 million control room called the Joint Operations Command Center on the fifth floor of police headquarters, a setting more Star Trek than NYPD Blue. The center has 40 video stations angled around a wall of floor-to-ceiling screens. The officer in charge sits in a command chair with a side-mounted teleconferencing screen built in. Other law-enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the Secret Service, have their own stations within the center. Access is tight; a palm scanner controls who gets in. At Police Chief Charles Ramseys direction, the center is adorned with President Bushs phrase for the war on terrorism: We will not tire, we will not falter, we will not fail. ROOTS IN IMF-WORLD BANK PROTESTS Washington police first used video surveillance in April 2000, when cameras were installed temporarily to monitor street protests during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings that year, Mr. Gaffigan says. Police were pleased with the results and they began building the command center to further support video surveillance operations. The department now has more than a dozen cameras mounted in downtown Washington, monitoring such sites as the White House, the National Mall and Union Station, as well as others attached to police helicopters. The system is designed to include more than 200 cameras in stations of the Washington Metro system, another 200 cameras in public schools, and 100 more planned for installation by the city traffic department at busy intersections. Twenty cameras operated by transportation officials in adjacent Maryland and Virginia also feed into the command room. The next logical extension is into communities to aid our crime-fighting efforts, Mr. Gaffigan says. The first neighborhood to add camera surveillance will probably be Georgetown, a shopping district popular with tourists and college students. There, says police Cmdr. Peter Newsham, merchants have proposed installing at their own expense a system of cameras that will feed into the police command center. Police say they expect other neighborhoods to follow. People in England have easily adapted to it, Mr. Gaffigan says. There has not been an outcry about privacy there. Copyright 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2. http://www.huginonline.com/try/plsql/pressreleases.queryview?P_IDENTIFIER=848403 &p_la=5 8:30AM 2002.02.13 (GMT) Axis provides advanced network surveillance solutions to Washington, DC Police Axis Communications has signed an agreement to deliver a new network surveillance system for the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC (MPDC). The new system allows the police department and its law enforcement partners to survey and monitor key areas of the nation's capital during major events and in support of everyday policing. The system transmits video feeds from various locations around the District of Columbia to the MPDC's Synchronized Operations Command Complex via a series of digital security cameras. Using a wireless video link, the cameras send the video feed to AXIS 2401 and AXIS 2400 Video Servers, which in turn seamlessly relay the video images to the command center at Police Headquarters. "The Axis video servers were ideal for us because they were easily integrated with our existing equipment and reduced the need to make additional infrastructure investments," said Walter Collier III, the MPDC's chief information officer. "We wanted the highest level of security at the lowest possible cost, and Axis met both requirements." The 3,600-officer Metropolitan Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency providing police services in the District of Columbia. The department works closely with federal and other law enforcement agencies based in Washington, DC to enhance public safety in both federal areas of the city as well as DC neighborhoods. The MPDC developed its state-of-the-art command complex to better coordinate law enforcement activities during demonstrations, Presidential Inaugurations and other major events in the nation's capital. About Axis Axis develops solutions for user-friendly and secure communication over wired and wireless networks. The company is a worldwide market leader in network connectivity, with products for the office, facility and industrial environments. Axis was founded in 1984 and is listed on Stockholmsborsens Attract40 list (XSSE:AXIS). With more than 300 employees, and offices in 15 countries, Axis operates globally in cooperation with distributors and OEM partners in 70 countries. Approximately 95 percent of production is exported out of Sweden. Information about Axis can be found at www.axis.com 3. http://www.huginonline.com/try/plsql/pressreleases.queryview?P_IDENTIFIER=848404 &p_la=5 8:30AM 2002.02.13 (GMT) Salt Lake media center boosts security with surveillance from Axis Axis Communications has delivered network surveillance system products to the Salt Palace Convention Center, the main media center during the winter games in Salt Lake City. The new system allows security staff to survey and monitor the media center and helps ensure the safety of the 10,000 international journalists who will cover the games. The Salt Palace Convention Center has improved its existing closed-circuit television (CCTV) system by deploying Axis video servers and network cameras. The digital video servers from Axis enable the Palace's security staff to view all images from its analog cameras on or off site, and create duplicate copies of the recorded images in case the on-site copy is destroyed. The Palace has also extended the capabilities of the system through software that can illuminate dark pictures via infrared light. For example, the software utilizes infrared light to illuminate the image of a car driving through the parking lot at night so that the license plate is clearly visible. Network cameras and video servers allow facilities such as convention centers to make better use of security and surveillance equipment by optimizing existing infrastructure and lowering the total cost of ownership. Unlike cameras used in CCTV systems that require special cabling infrastructures, network cameras plug directly into existing data networks and easily make images accessible to appropriate persons, even at remote sites. Video servers digitize images from analog cameras, allowing users to more cost effectively and efficiently record, transfer and manage images. * Media interested in seeing actual security video feeds from Axis cameras in and around the Salt Palace will be provided with the Web address and login information at their request. (ylva.blomquist@axis.com)* X-From_: info@notbored.org Thu Feb 14 06:46:32 2002 X-Sender: notbored@popserver.panix.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 06:49:02 -0500 To: info@notbored.org From: NOT BORED!Subject: Surveillance cameras in bathrooms/changing rooms Three stories concerning secret video surveillance of bathrooms/changing rooms 1. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/01/07/court-cameras.htm 01/07/2002 - Updated 10:54 AM ET High court OKs video surveillance suit WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for employees of a trucking company to pursue an invasion-of-privacy suit against the company, which installed video surveillance cameras in bathrooms. The court refused to be drawn directly into the case involving employees of Consolidated Freightways, one of the country's largest trucking companies. The workers claimed the cameras violated their privacy and were illegal under a state law prohibiting secret videotaping. The trucking company maintained that the cameras were intended only to stop illegal drug use or sales at a shipping terminal in Mira Loma, Calif., and that employees were on notice that they might be videotaped. The issue before the high court was not the legality of the cameras, per se, but the question of whether the unionized employees' lawsuit was prohibited under longstanding federal labor law. If so, many employers would have a stronger hand when considering various workplace surveillance or security measures. If not, union-covered employees would have a clearer avenue to the courts, where they can win money or other damages. The high court's action, in effect, cleared the way for the employees to pursue their invasion of privacy suit. A divided federal appeals court ruled for the company and then reversed course and ruled against the company last year. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers nine western states, eventually found that the federal law on the uniformity of union-negotiated employment contracts does not trump California's own law making it a crime to place a hidden camera in a bathroom. Consolidated appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the Teamster union's broad collective bargaining agreement provides for some on-the-job video surveillance, and gives employees internal avenues to file grievances without going to court. "Whether a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy turns on whether he consented to the intrusion," Consolidated's lawyers wrote. The dispute arose from an incident in 1997, when an employee straightened a mirror knocked askew by a slamming door. The mirror fell, revealing a camera. Employees then discovered the same setup in the women's bathroom, and more cameras and a microphone in another men's room. The cameras were pointed into the main portion of the bathroom, and photographed anyone who entered, the employees claim. The company claims the cameras were focused away from urinals or stalls. Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 2. http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,3569734%255E42 1,00.html Boss hid spy camera By CHRISTINE CAULFIELD 11jan02 A FACTORY owner installed a video camera in female change rooms to spy on his staff for sexual gratification, a court heard yesterday. Peter Taylor, 50, set up the surveillance camera in a ceiling fan directly above the only female toilet in his car detailing shop. But defence counsel Nicola Gobbo told the Ballarat Magistrates' Court Mr Taylor suspected the staff at Southern Vehicle Enhancements, at Delacombe, were lazing around in the change room. She said Mr Taylor's intention was to monitor staff productivity, and to ensure none were using or dealing drugs on the premises. Magistrate Paul Grant said he could see no need to mount the camera above the toilet if Mr Taylor's aim was to check staff were working. Mr Grant said, on the evidence, it seemed more likely Mr Taylor derived some sexual pleasure from watching staff in the toilet. "It seems to me there is only one thing this person is trying to achieve, and that is to view people," Mr Grant said. In response to Ms Gobbo's claim that her client did not install the camera for some sinister sexual reasons, Mr Grant said: "It seems to me it was". Ms Gobbo said her client, who has also settled a civil suit over the matter, was anxious his staff did not have to give evidence in a criminal court. She said he did not want them to be subject to cross-examination, potentially causing them further distress. But Mr Grant said if Mr Taylor suspected the women were using or dealing drugs in the change room, they had a right to defend themselves. Mr Taylor, of Wiltshire Lane, Sebastopol, has been charged with installing and using a surveillance device and possessing an unregistered firearm, which was also found in the ceiling. The case has been adjourned to February 13. 3. BC-NY--Hidden Cameras,200 Super arrested for installing cameras in women's bathroom NEW YORK (AP) - The superintendent of a Fifth Avenue office building has been arrested for installing hidden cameras in two women's bathrooms, police said Tuesday. Zdenko Ceselka, 34, of Iselin, N.J., was charged with unlawfully installing or maintaining a two-way mirror or other viewing device, the Manhattan prosecutor's office said. He was to be arraigned Tuesday night. If convicted of the misdemeanor, Ceselka could face a maximum 15 days in jail, a $300 fine or both. Police learned of the two hidden cameras on Monday when a woman noticed something sticking out of a ceiling vent in the 7th floor women's bathroom at Screen Vision Cinema, a company located at 597 Fifth Avenue, between 48th and 49th streets near Rockefeller Plaza and St. Patrick's Cathedral. The woman called 911 and police discovered the camera. A search of the building found another hidden camera in a 6th floor women's bathroom. The cameras had no recording devices, and the cameras were linked to a close-circuit television system found in the building's boiler room, police said. (Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-07-03-01 1648EDT X-From_: info@notbored.org Thu Feb 14 06:54:26 2002 X-Sender: notbored@popserver.panix.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 06:56:54 -0500 To: info@notbored.org From: NOT BORED!Subject: face (mis)recognition three news stories on face (mis)recognition 1. http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2002051373,00.html CCTV 'yob' is innocent INNOCENT Andrew Talbot was arrested for being a soccer yob even though he has never been to a football match. Carpet fitter Andrew, 27, was nicked because police decided he was the spitting image of a violent yob caught on closed circuit TV. He was accused of being one of Cardiff Citys notorious hooligan gang and charged with violent misconduct. He faced a maximum of ten years jail and had to appear in court THREE times before the case was finally thown out. Now he plans to sue the police for defamation. Andrew was laying a carpet for a pal in his home town of Barry, South Wales, on the day of violent clashes in Stoke. He said yesterday: The bloke did look a bit like me but all we really had in common is short hair receding a bit. A spokesman for Staffordshire police said: Evidence came to light through Mr Talbots defence solicitor which led the prosecution not to proceed. ============ Andrew Talbot http://www.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2002050761,00.jpg Yob ... CCTV picture http://www.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2002050762,00.gif 2. January 15, 2002 New Side to Face-Recognition Technology: Identifying Victims By JOHN SCHWARTZ Since Sept. 11, discussion of the disputed technology of face recognition has focused on its potential for identifying criminals and terrorists - and for invading citizens' privacy. But in England, the police are pursuing a different path: they want to use facial recognition software to identify crime victims. Using software developed by a Canadian company, Britain's National Crime Squad is creating a database of nearly three million pictures seized in raids of child pornography rings. By matching the images against pictures of missing children, investigators hope to find them, or at least generate clues - an unusual car or or distinctive scenery - that can help identify the people making the photos and films. Facial recognition has been in development for decades, but recent advances in computer power and software have made the systems less expensive and more accurate - though just how accurate remains a subject of debate. Most systems work by taking pictures of faces, comparing them to a template and making dozens of measurements of each one, including factors like the distance between the eyes. In the case of Imagis Technologies - the company in Vancouver, British Columbia, that created the software out of earlier work on recognizing patterns in satellite photographs - the program detects hundreds of "light source positions." It also measures factors like the angle of the head and facial shape, said Andy Amanovich, the company's chief technology officer. The mathematical description of those features is stored in a database, to be compared with other strings of numbers that have been derived from faces - and also jewelry, clothes, scars and background objects like furniture or vehicles. No facial recognition system is perfect, or even close: all make mismatches and overly broad matches. Many can be confounded by simple subterfuges like wigs or glasses. Civil liberties and other groups say they cast too wide a net, invading privacy and extending the reach of surveillance too far. And the technology's credibility has not been helped, many experts agree, by exaggerated claims for its effectiveness. "These software companies have popped off numbers that they can't really substantiate," said Ron Cadle, a vice president of Pellco Inc., which is adapting facial recognition systems for use in Fresno Yosemite International Airport. "It's kind of given them a black eye." Mr. Amanovich agreed. "There's a lot of false claims out there and a lot of specious claims to what all technologies can do," he said. Nevertheless, Mr. Cadle, who uses recognition programs from Visionics Inc. and Viisage, said his company had boosted the reliability his partners' software so that it can make a match 80 percent of the time and falsely claim a match with just 1 of every 500 passengers. Mr. Amanovich, however, said such figures are so malleable at this early stage that claims are not useful. The British project had its origins in a 1997 sweep in which 101 members of a child pornography trading ring called Wonderland were arrested in raids around the world. Aficionados of child pornography tend to be obsessive collectors of pictures and films, and that and other raids led to a police database of some three million images - too many for humans to sort through effectively. (Efforts to create books or CD's by hand had yielded 1,200 identifiable faces, leading to the identification of just 18 children, one of whom had been murdered.) So in December 2000, the squad signed an agreement with a contractor, Serco Group, to automate the rest of the process. Serco turned to Imagis. Peter Spindler, a detective superintendent with the National Crime Squad, says he has been impressed with early results. The software was able to identify images from a test database - not just images of children, but also of siblings. The feature could could help identify families participating in the porn trade. But one expert in child pornography said the British efforts was "not going to do much." Dr. John Philip Jenkins, a professor of history at Penn State and author of "Beyond Tolerance: Child Pornography on the Internet," said child pornography photos were unlikely to lead investigators to the children involved. A child victim's identity, he said, "is only likely to come to light if the child comes up in an abuse case." Many of the images, he added, now flow >from the former Soviet Union, where lax enforcement allowed the trade to flourish. There, he said "police corruption is going to limit the effectiveness of any attempt to use this technology" successfully. He called for international efforts to crush online image trading. But Detective Spindler said the police had to try to do more than restrict the traffic in illicit images. "It's not simply about identifying people who are abusing the Internet, people who are trading child pornography," he said. "This is about people abusing children." 3. Drawing a Blank: Tampa Police Records Reveal Poor Performance of Face-Recognition Technology Tampa Officials Have Suspended Use of the System, ACLU Reports FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, January 3, 2002 NEW YORK--Facial recognition technology on the streets of Tampa, Florida is an overhyped failure that has been seemingly abandoned by police officials, according to a report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union. System logs obtained by the ACLU through Florida's open-records law show that the system never identified even a single individual contained in the department's database of photographs. And in response to the ACLU's queries about the small number of system logs, the department has acknowledged that the software -- originally deployed last June, 2001 -- has not been actively used since August. "Tampa's off-again, on-again use of face-recognition software reminds us that public officials should not slavishly embrace whatever latest fad in surveillance technology comes along," said Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida, which made the records request last August. The logs obtained by the ACLU also indicate that the system made many false matches between people photographed by police video cameras as they walked down Seventh Avenue in Tampa's Ybor City district and photographs in the department's database of criminals, sex offenders, and runaways. The system made what were to human observers obvious errors, such as matching male and female subjects and subjects with significant differences in age or weight. "Face recognition is all hype and no action," said Barry Steinhardt, Associate Director of the ACLU and an author of the report. "Potentially powerful surveillance systems like face recognition need to be examined closely before they are deployed, and the first question to ask is whether the system will actually improve our safety. The experience of the Tampa Police Department confirms that this technology doesn't deliver." According to the ACLU, Tampa police officials have claimed that their discontinuation of the system was due to disruptions caused by police redistricting and that they planned to resume operation at some point in the future. The ACLU expressed skepticism that redistricting was what really led Tampa to abandon the face recognition system. As the report notes, "it is reasonable to assume that the professionals in the Tampa Police Department would not have let the system sit unused for so long because of a mere redistricting process had they previously found facial recognition to be a valuable tool in the effort to combat crime." Several government agencies have already abandoned facial-recognition systems after finding they did not work as advertised, including the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which experimented with using the technology to identify people in cars at the Mexico-U.S. border. And Steinhardt noted that more controlled studies of face recognition software -- by the federal government's National Institute of Standards and Technology, by the Defense Department, and by independent security expert Richard Smith -- have found levels of ineffectiveness similar to those in Tampa. Despite these findings, facial recognition systems are being increasingly discussed and deployed, largely as a means for combating terrorism. They are being set up in several airports around the United States, including Logan Airport in Boston, T.F. Green Airport in Providence, R.I., Fresno Airport in California and Palm Beach International Airport in Florida. The ACLU has urged officials at these airports to discontinue use of the systems, noting that facial recognition schemes are of little use without a photographic database of known terrorists. At Fresno airport, officials have addressed this problem by using photos of criminals from the television program "America's Most Wanted." "It makes little sense to employ an intrusive system that will have little chance of success," Steinhardt said. "The technology will not only divert resources from more effective efforts, but it will also create a false sense of security that will cause us to let our guard down." The ACLU's report is available online in .pdf format at http://www.aclu.org/issues/privacy/drawing_blank.pdf. Copies of the ACLU's letters to airport officials are included in a special web feature at http://www.aclu.org/features/f110101a.html Copyright 2001, The American Civil Liberties Union X-From_: info@notbored.org Thu Feb 14 07:00:05 2002 X-Sender: notbored@popserver.panix.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 07:02:32 -0500 To: info@notbored.org From: NOT BORED!Subject: surveillance cameras in the occupied territories two news stories about surveillance cameras in occupied territories 1. http://www.utvinternet.com/news_disp/indepth.asp?pt=n&id=14262 MONDAY 11/02/02 10:56:10 CCTV to be installed at flashpoint A closed circuit television camera is today being installed in flashpoint north Belfast in a bid to ease sectarian tensions. The extra security measure close to the Holy Cross primary school comes as two people were arrested after rival mobs clashed in a nearby area of the city. Police chiefs had recommended a permanent CCTV system for the troubled Ardoyne district following months of rioting in the area. But with these plans still to be finalised, Northern Ireland Security Minister Jane Kennedy today announced a single, temporary camera would be installed at the junction of Ardoyne Road and Alliance Avenue. She said: ``The installation of a temporary CCTV system in north Belfast is the latest in a series of security measures which will improve community safety for all the people of Ardoyne.`` The camera will take a week to put in place on the route where Catholic children last year endured a three-month long picket from loyalist residents on their way to Holy Cross primary school. The protests were called off in December after Northern Ireland`s First and Deputy First Ministers, David Trimble and Mark Durkan, helped broker a package of security measures for the area. The temporary camera follows Ms Kennedy`s announcement last week that peace walls are to be extended in parts of north Belfast. ``The increased police patrols and 24-hour police community presence provided by the Chief Constable, along with the additional security measures I announced on February 4, represent a significant security/community safety package for the area,`` she said. Meanwhile, three miles away police today made two arrests after gangs of nationalists and loyalists clashed in the Whitewell area of the city, scene of much sectarian violence in recent months. A police spokeswoman said there was disorder in the area last night but this ended around 12.45am. Trouble broke out again early this morning but the spokeswoman later said the area was quiet. Police said they had reports of fireworks being thrown from the loyalist White City Estate towards the nationalist area beyond Arthur Bridge. The arrests were made after a nationalist crowd from the Longlands Estate confronted police, throwing bottles. One of those arrested is believed to be a juvenile. Today`s trouble followed sporadic violence over the weekend, with up to eight petrol bombs thrown on Saturday night. Related Stories 11/02/02 08:17:23 - Sectarian gangs clash in Belfast http://www.utvinternet.com/news_disp/indepth.asp?id=14248&pt=n 27/01/02 09:23:02 - Family unhurt in petrol bomb attack http://www.utvinternet.com/news_disp/indepth.asp?id=13781&pt=n 21/01/02 08:15:50 - Dodds demands increase in security http://www.utvinternet.com/news_disp/indepth.asp?id=13591&pt=n 2. http://ummahnews.com/viewarticle.php?sid=2690 Israeli surveillance system operational in Occupied Kashmir 2002-02-06 21:11:09 Muhammad Sharif Bajwa 6 February 2002 India has secretly deployed an Israeli electronic surveillance system along the Line of Control in Kashmir. The system, which tracks missiles, was deployed quietly in October even before the military build-up that started after December 13, said Indian Defence sources in New Delhi on Tuesday. India is currently negotiating for the Israeli Green Pine radar system. But even before a formal seal on the agreement India has used the system in its "trip-wire" deployment since the Pakistani army conducted its exercise "Operation Khabardar" at the end of October. The system is said to be under "evaluation". Official sources neither confirm nor deny it has been used and if it continues to be in operation. As the system was installed - it is possible that more than one radar was put into use - it was with the help of technical experts from Israel who, too, were in Occupied Kashmir. The Green Pine is a ground-based radar system made by Israels Elta company. It is said to be capable of tracking a missile for 400 km and is normally used in conjunction with the Arrow anti-missile missile. Arrow is also made by the Israelis and, combined with the Green Pine all-weather radar, it forms an umbrella of protection against enemy missiles. The system is assessed to be of great strategic value to New Delhi. Deployed along the western border, it is capable of tracking and recording movements in the Pakistani tactical installations close to India, including at least one of its nuclear facilities at Kahuta and Sargodha. India will acquire three such systems. Meanwhile, Indias top Defence Scientist Dr. V. K. Aatre has said that New Delhi was planning to increase the strike range of Agni ballistic missile. "We always have plans to increase the range...reduce the weight and get better systems....its part of the development", said Dr. Aatre. Aatre, also the Secretary in the Department of Defence Research and Development, declined to say how far the strike range would be increased. He said Agni-II has had three test flights. The last one, a shorter version with strike range of 700 km, was on January 25 this year. He also said the Technology Demonstrator-II of Light Combat Aircraft, the worlds smallest light-weight supersonic fighter, is slated to take to the skies this month. Aatre noted that LCA TD-1, which had its maiden flight on January four last year, had completed the first block of 12 flights in five months. He added that India would start conducting further trials of Brahmos from May, the supersonic cruise missile being developed jointly with Russia. One flight of Brahmos is over. We are going to have further flights from May. One flight has shown that the system works," he said. Aatre said the Nishant Project (unmanned aerial vehicle) is nearly through. It (Nishant) is being tested. We are going to shortly demonstrate it to the Army. Hopefully, by the middle of this year, we should have cleared all the tests, he said. Asked what would be the countrys expectations from the US in view of the improved relations between the two countries, he said India is looking for engines for the initial part of LCA - till the Kaveri engine being developed in India reaches maturity stage - and a few critical technologies. Aatre said he visited the US and held discussions. I believe we will get some engines (for LCA), he said. To a question, he said there is a possibility of Israel transferring Airborne Early Warning and Control Systems technology to India. X-From_: info@notbored.org Thu Feb 14 07:05:04 2002 X-Sender: notbored@popserver.panix.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 07:07:34 -0500 To: info@notbored.org From: NOT BORED!Subject: surveillance cameras and the harassment of gays, young women two stories on surveillance cameras and the harassment of gays and young women 1. The West Australian, January 12, 2002 50 Hasler Road, Osborne Park, Western Australia 6017 (Fax: + 61-8-9482-9080) (E-Mail: letters@wanews.com.au ) ( http://www.thewest.com.au ) http://www.thewest.com.au/20020112/news/perth/tw-news-perth-home-sto39769.html Gay club fears cameras By Ben Harvey New security camera laws are an invasion of privacy and could compromise gay patrons, according to the owner of Perth's leading gay nightclub. Connections nightclub owner Tim Brown said people would shy away from his Northbridge club because they would be filmed by cameras, which are compulsory only in selected premises. Mr Brown claimed Connections, which has had few problems with violence in 26 years, should not have to install cameras because of its sensitive nature. "We haven't had any problems with violence at Connections and our record shows that," he said. "Our relationship has always been pretty good with police. "Most importantly, we are concerned for the privacy of the people who come to the club. "We didn't even let people take photos until about five years ago." Connections, on James Street, is one of several nightclubs and hotels which have applied for exemption from new security laws which take effect on March 1. Racing and Gaming Minister Nick Griffiths said yesterday that the laws, which dealt with safety at WA's drinking venues, would help police tackle violence in hot spots such as Northbridge. The entertainment precinct hit the headlines on Tuesday when The West Australian revealed that a leaked Government report showed crime in the area had spiralled in the past 10 years. Tough legislation - which made security cameras compulsory for any venue trading past 1am and set minimum standards for the number of bouncers - would fight the rising crime trend, Mr Griffiths said. Businesses affected by the laws must keep security footage for 14 days so police investigating nightclub violence can view the tapes. "A continuing trend of violence in Perth's busiest and largest nightspots will result in long-term damage to the nightclub and hotel industry," Mr Griffiths said. Australian Hotels Association executive director Bradley Woods, who attacked the laws when they were announced in November, supported the use of cameras. Mr Woods said his association would recommend that all licensed premises, not just those trading past 1am, install security camera systems. The systems cost $2000 or more each. He expected the industry would cooperate fully with police but conceded that some recalcitrant businesses might need to have warrants served on them before they gave surveillance tapes to police. Of WA's 59 nightclubs which trade under cabaret licences, six have applied for exemptions. Twenty-eight hotels operating under special facility licences must install cameras. Nine have applied for exemptions, including The Chorus Cafe in East Perth - the site of a gang retribution attack in April 2000. At that time, a member of the Sword Boy gang had his lung punctured during a knife fight with the M'Bros gang. Police launched Operation Sabre and charged a 19-year-old M'Bros gang member over the attack. 2. http://icberkshire.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200berkshireheadlines/page.cfm?obje ctid=11582182&method=full&siteid=50102 Teens caught bonking on CCTV By Vanessa Mistry, Bracknell News BRACKNELL'S youngsters have found a new pastime - having sex in public places, according to a town police officer. PC Mark Walton says he knows of three instances of couples having sex on the Mill Lane roundabout in Great Hollands. And he said there is CCTV footage of drunken party-goers leaving Colours nightclub in the town centre also having sex in public. He said: "A recent trend in Bracknell is having sex on the roundabout. I have come across people doing that. "If we were on patrol and we caught a couple bonking we could move them on for obstruction of highway or exposure. It's a social problem. "I get the impression that this behaviour is more widespread and is a social norm. "I went to the control room at Princess Square. I got talking to one operator about Colours. The young people in question have no scruples about doing things in public. They are having sex on the street lying on the pavement. Blatant things were going on." PC Walton added that he is sure parents are unaware of what their children are getting up to when they go out at night. "If you get kids going out underage, getting plied with alcohol then anything does happen," he said. Head of family planning in Reading Janice Burnett said youngsters find it difficult to talk with their parents about sex but they should know where to get help if needed. She said: "Alcohol affects the decisions young people make and the way they behave. "There is a lot of national and local concern about unplanned and unwanted pregnancies so there should be a consistent message going out to them about the consequences." Roger Hutchings, commercial manager for BRT (Brack-nell Regeneration Trust) which owns Princess Square Shopping Centre, said he wasn't aware of indecent acts happening but said if there is a problem, the police should take action. Figures released last year show the increase in teenage conceptions in Bracknell Forest was the fifth highest in the country. X-From_: info@notbored.org Thu Feb 14 07:09:36 2002 X-Sender: notbored@popserver.panix.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 07:12:06 -0500 To: info@notbored.org From: NOT BORED!Subject: secret workplace surveillance two articles about surveilling workers on the job 1. More and more bosses are using some form of electronic surveillance in the workplace. In a union workplace, workers have a better chance of fighting this invasion of privacy. Stewards should know new forms of surveillance may well be grievable ... and hidden cameras may be subject to mandatory bargaining. Non-union workers are basically out of luck in looking for legal protections. Workplace Surveillance From 8 million in 1990 to 20 million in 1996 more and more workers are being monitored on the job through some form of electronic surveillance. Workers at a UE factory one day noticed a crew of outside electricians doing a lot of work in the plant. They were installing an extraordinary amount of new electric exit signs and refurbishing old ones. At first no one thought anything about it, but then someone noticed that instead of regular electric cable running into the signs there was 3/4 inch coaxial cables. The second shift conducted an examination of the new signs and to their surprise they found that each exit sign not only had lights inside them but also had miniature video cameras that were set to watch the workers! At another UE workplace the office and clerical workers were notified by management that they were not to conduct personal business on company time. Most workers treated this as just as another one of those stupid notices that bosses post from time to time. A few weeks later several workers were called into the office and given written warnings for conducting personal business on company time. The bosses evidence was email letters that had been taken >from the workers personal inter-office email accounts! Since the letters were of a personal nature and didnt have anything to do work the boss accused the workers of "stealing time." A GROWING TREND This is all part of a growing trend in America of employers spying on workers. While most bosses say this is just part of an effort to stop "theft" or to prevent "drug usage," it is in most cases just another way to put pressure on workers to produce more, it is part of speed-up. In 1990 according to one survey about 8 million workers were subject to some form of electronic surveillance by their employers. In 1996 the number had risen to 20 million workers, and this is just based upon the employers who admit to spying on their workers. In a 1993 survey of large corporations 22 percent admitted they spied on their workers with some form of electronic surveillance and never told the workers they were being monitored. IS SPYING GRIEVABLE? The basic answer is yes. The basic union approach must be that any time the employer wants to make a change in our working conditions (and using surveillance on workers can not be considered a "minor change") then we can grieve the changes and demand the employer bargain over them. The section of the contract to quote is usually the Recognition Clause. If we ever suspect that the boss is using surveillance cameras, or reading email, confront them with the accusation. If they admit doing it, immediately file a grievance. Have everybody sign it to let the boss know they dont like being spied on. Remember, this is a two step process. First, the grievance is filed over a change in working condition being made without bargaining with the union. The remedy must be stated, usually it will be that the employer stop the surveillance immediately. Second, a separate letter is given to the employer demanding they enter into negotiations with the union over their intent to spy on the members. IS THERE LEGAL PROTECTION? As in most cases concerning the rights of workers, the laws are not so good or dont exist. We have to depend on our strength as a union to back up the grievance procedure. When the boss is caught spying on us it is easy to make up stickers and buttons with catchy slogans. The NLRB has ruled on some issues of spying or privacy. In a 1997 ruling concerning Colgate-Palmolive Co. The NLRB ruled that the companys installation and use of hidden surveillance cameras was subject to mandatory bargaining with the union. The NLRB has previously ruled that making current employees take drug tests (except if they are covered under Federal law) is also a mandatory subject of bargaining. The same applies to the use of lie detector tests. The NLRB has not ruled on employers listening in on employees phone calls or reading their email, thus we must fight these cases solely based upon our contracts and membership strength. WHAT DO THE BOSSES THINK? The consulting companies that advise employers on their "rights" make the following points: The Bill of Rights of the US Constitution doesnt apply to workers and bosses, it only applies to the government and citizens. They do caution employers against unreasonably searching employees belongings. They advise employers to tell workers up front that they will be spied on using every conceivable means. This supposedly makes being spied on a "normal condition of employment" so that when a workers finds the video camera in the bathroom they cant complain. Remember, just because bosses can get away with some things in non-union workplace, doesnt mean they can do the same in workplaces with unions. 2. Today's SPJ Press Notes digests an AP story about police officers spending hours -- in one case half of the officer's shift -- in a break room at the Denver airport when they should have been patrolling. Average police overtime costs at the airport had more than doubled after September 11. The story notes that one officer's hours-long break occurred during an NFL playoff game. City officials are outraged. One council member is quoted as saying, ``How do you explain that you've got police officers, sworn to serve and protect, spending five hours watching football instead of watching the airport?'' The story was broken by television station KCNC, which monitored the break room with a hidden camera. It's not made clear in the AP story, but the camera appears to have been placed outside the doors of the break room, since there is no direct report of what the officers were doing in the break room. (The story does not say the officer WATCHED the playoff game, just that his break occurred DURING the game.) Is the hidden camera justified in any circumstances? Presumably it was in a public concourse, though that's not clear. Are television stations justified in setting up hidden cameras wherever they want to monitor the activities of public employees? Could the information have been gleaned as easily by other means? (Placing an employee with a stopwatch outside the door would have garnered the same basic information but perhaps not with as many clues to the officers' identities. And I assume it would have made for less dramatic television footage.) Assuming that the cameras were outside the break room, is the television station even justified in mentioning that there was an NFL playoff game on at the same time -- an observation that figured in the council member's reaction? (Maybe the officers were in there catching up on backlogged paperwork.) If it was improper to mention the game, would that be justification for placing a camera INSIDE the break room, where the activities of these public employees could be verified? The AP story is on the New York Times web site at http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Airport-Police.html Peter Sussman Member, SPJ Ethics Committee ========================= -----Original Message----- From: owner-spj-ethics@ccrc.wustl.edu [mailto:owner-spj-ethics@ccrc.wustl.edu] On Behalf Of Elizabeth Donald Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2002 9:53 PM To: SPJ Ethics Subject: Re: Hidden camera Usually I consider myself a conservative in matters of journalism ethics. However, in the matter of hidden cameras, I find it hard to come up with a reason to deny them. Sometimes reporting must be done undercover, and a camera is an extension of that. Its uses must always be monitored by editors and appropriate to the story, of course. I've never understood the opposition to hidden cameras in public places, and I'd like to hear more arguments. It seems to me that a reporter with a stopwatch outside the break room would have the effect of getting the officers back to work, aware they were being observed, and their habit of taking hours-long breaks would never come to light. Also, it was a public facility, and certainly public safety was at issue, as well as taxpayer money paying overtime for these guys. I'm assuming the station contacted the station and gave them the opportunity to defend their actions, at which time the officers could have stated they were catching up on paperwork, if that was the case. That would follow with the code, giving subjects the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing. As to whether it was appropriate to mention the game, I think so. We always say we don't draw conclusions; we present the facts and let the readers draw their own conclusions. It seems to me that's what KCNC did. -- Elizabeth Donald Belleville News-Democrat X-From_: info@notbored.org Sun Feb 17 09:42:17 2002 X-Sender: notbored@popserver.panix.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 09:44:53 -0500 To: info@notbored.org From: NOT BORED!Subject: more on proposed Wash DC cameras Status: O X-Status: two articles 1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22341-2002Feb16.html D.C. Forms Network of Surveillance Police System of Hundreds of Video Links Raises Issues of Rights, Privacy By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, February 17, 2002; Page C01 District police first experienced the power of live video as a law enforcement tool during NATO's 50th anniversary summit in April 1999, when officers in a command post captured a panoramic view of a secured capital >from a helicopter circling overhead. They used the technology again during protests against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 2000 and again during last year's presidential inauguration and became so keen on it that they incorporated it into a high-tech center. That center was ready for service on the kind of day it was conceived for: Sept. 11. Now, with the war on terrorism shifting the frontiers of law enforcement, the D.C. police command and control facility is expanding into one of the country's most extensive computerized surveillance networks, linking hundreds of government video cameras that already monitor streets, subway stations, schools and federal facilities. Police acknowledge that the system is in "an embryonic state" that will develop for months and years, depending on public debate over its proper limits. They have no plans to plug in private camera systems, for instance, except for that of a Georgetown business association that has asked to take part. But police are also reacting to the country's post-September mood, eager to protect Washington's unique environment using technology that has moved from a concept to a reality, nurtured by millions of dollars' worth of development by the federal government. "The video technology is state-of-the-art, fully computerized switching equipment that is very similar to what you would find in a NASA or defense command center," said Stephen J. Gaffigan, a former Justice Department director of community policing and head of the D.C. police project. "I don't think there's really a limit on the feeds it can take," Gaffigan said. "We're trying to build . . . the capability to tap into not only video but databases and systems across the region." Police departments across the country have been using surveillance video for years to deter crime and guard property in specific districts. The D.C. police project, however, makes Washington the first U.S. city to be able to peer across wide stretches of the city and to create a digital record of images, according to security industry and police chiefs associations. U.S. security experts are working with satellite-based optics that enable camera operators to see in the dark, zoom in to see the type on a printed page from hundreds of feet away and peer inside buildings. The potential of such technology, pioneered for the military, presents a host of issues. Is the system designed to catch terrorists or street criminals? Should it be used all the time or only for defined incidents? Once in place, will authorities expand it by building a repository of images or directing it to controversial uses such as computer facial-recognition software? And who controls the cameras, the recordings and the decision-making? As Norm Siegel, former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, once put it, "Who's watching, why are they watching, and, perhaps most importantly, what are they doing with the videotape?" The D.C. Council and the House Government Reform subcommittee on the District plan to hold hearings, and police and watchdog groups say they welcome a public debate to set the rules. "The technology [used by the District] can be a very powerful tool," said Richard Chace, spokesman for the Security Industry Association, a trade group of equipment manufacturers that advises governments to have policy drive their use of technology, not vice versa. "But it has to be controlled. You have to be careful who's in charge of it and have proper procedures and protocols." The security industry and the 15,000-member International Association of Chiefs of Police plan to hold a conference to discuss intelligence sharing, following a statement the association released on self-regulation of video monitoring in March. Sheldon Krantz, chairman of an American Bar Association task force on technology and law enforcement, said the bar in 1999 released its first guidelines for police surveillance in two decades to fill a void in constitutional and legislative regulation of the fast-changing field and to call for public input. "When George Orwell wrote '1984,' probably even he just did not anticipate what kind of eavesdropping and electronic technology we now have," said Krantz, a white-collar defense lawyer and former Boston University Law School research director, who added that there are very good reasons for public surveillance. Still, he said, "technology has evolved to a point where it can literally take away virtually all notions of privacy." The rapid expansion of video surveillance -- and occasional abuses -- is neither hypothetical nor new. The Supreme Court has defined Americans' right to privacy based partly on the distinction between public and personal spheres, but camera proliferation can blur that distinction. Cameras at automated teller machines capture 250,000 customer transactions daily for Citibank, for instance, and the security industry estimates that more than 2 million surveillance cameras are in use across the country. In Manhattan in 1998, volunteers counted 2,400 electronic eyes in public places used to catch everything from red-light runners at traffic intersections, shoplifters outside grocery and department stores, and drug sellers loitering near lampposts. Former mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) credited surveillance with slashing crime in public housing by 20 to 40 percent, and cameras have been added to Washington Square and Times Square in the city. A 2001 survey by the International Association of Chiefs of Police concluded that 80 percent of 19,000 U.S. police departments have deployed closed-circuit television in their jurisdictions, and 10 percent more plan to do so soon. Police in Tacoma, Wash., cut service calls in half with seven cameras in a neighborhood plagued by drugs and gangs. Advances in facial-recognition software present new opportunities and new concerns. The technology, controversial when first attempted on a wide scale at last year's Super Bowl in Tampa, has been tested since Sept. 11 by a handful of airports in cities including Boston; Oakland, Calif; St. Petersburg, Fla.; and Dallas, and it has been studied by airports and law enforcement agencies in many other jurisdictions, including Virginia Beach. Abroad, England has experienced the greatest benefits and costs of what sociologists dub a "culture of surveillance." More than three-fourths of British localities patrol public spaces with the help of video. The London Underground has 14,000 cameras, and the central government installed 1,300 cameras as part of its anti-terrorism "Ring of Steel" defenses around its financial district. Street crime dropped 19 percent from 1993 to 1996 there. On the other hand, the country reeled in 1996 when more than 80,000 copies of a $15 video, "Caught in the Act," were sold. The 45-minute voyeur video depicted couples engaged in sex in office closets, violent break-ins, women in their bedrooms and even a shot up the skirt of Princess Diana. Groups such as the ACLU support cameras to catch red-light runners and to patrol parking garages, but the pace of public surveillance technology is overrunning traditional legal notions of average citizens' rights to anonymity and free association, said ACLU Associate Director Barry Steinhardt. Libertarians invoke Orwell's haunting line from "1984": "There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment." D.C. police officials, acknowledging the sensitive nature of the debate, say they intend to move carefully. Their project has won support from several established law enforcement and technology figures. In addition to the Secret Service and FBI, the U.S. Capitol Police and U.S. Park Police are expected to reach agreement soon to permit links from their video assets to the D.C. center when events warrant, Gaffigan said. As described by police officials, the District links computer video servers to 13 digital police cameras programmed to automatically scan such public places as the Capitol, the White House, the Washington Monument, Union Station and major bridges. D.C. public schools, Metro and the D.C. Department of Transportation have agreed to link 500 cameras overlooking train stations, roads and school hallways in an emergency. As a crime is reported, the cooperating agency can feed views of the scene, surrounding alleys or streets to police commanders and to computer screens installed in nearly 1,000 squad cars. "In the event a biochemical or any other event happens in a subway," Gaffigan said, "a central command officer can actually look in and see what's going on." Police could also see inside a school in case of a shooting or hostage incident, manage an evacuation, track a getaway car -- or perhaps stop a saboteur before one struck. Executive Assistant Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer said police will not tolerate misuse by camera operators and say that although daily operations will increasingly be run from the command center, its video displays will be activated only during incidents or special alerts, such as that issued by the Justice Department last week. Police are drafting policies on recording and storage of images, among other issues. "There are lines that will be drawn which no one should cross," Gainer said. "When we are in a public space, what we do and how we behave is visible to anybody, including the police. But now with technology and the way you can get a picture from a satellite or a remote camera, people probably just need to be aware of that more." The power of surveillance images was clear after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, when agents combed through neighboring buildings' videotapes in an effort to identify their "John Doe" suspects. More sophisticated technology is on the way. The General Services Administration has dedicated $1 billion since 1995 to building security, screening and surveillance devices and personnel and is proposing spending $75 million this year on projects such as X-ray machines, reinforced glass and facial-recognition software. Engineers are hard at work to create software to join such databases as surveillance image libraries with lists of suspected individuals. D.C. police say that facial-recognition technology is unreliable for now and that they have no intention of including video from private sources -- other than a pilot test requested by the Georgetown business district. But industry leaders say technology is continuing to expand. "The digital video collection, as it becomes cheaper and more accessible technology, will become the method of video surveillance," said Chace, spokesman for the Security Industry Association. "It's just a no-brainer." The trick, said John R. Firman, director of research for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, is to do it right. "We have to maximize our ability to blend, share and combine information," he said. "The real bottom line is there should never even be a Big Brother issue. There should be consensus among law enforcement, justice community and citizens to say, how do we keep ourselves and our country safe?" 2002 The Washington Post Company 2. http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=topnews&StoryID=593227 2.13.2002 Washington Plans Unprecedented Camera Network February 13, 2002 08:10 AM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Washington police are building what will be the nation's biggest network of surveillance cameras to monitor shopping areas, streets, monuments and other public places in the U.S. capital, a move that worries civil liberties groups, The Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday. The system would eventually include hundreds of cameras, linking existing devices in Metro mass transit stations, public schools and traffic intersections to new digital cameras mounted to watch over neighborhoods and shopping districts, the Journal said. "In the context of Sept. 11, we have no choice but to accept greater use of this technology," Stephen Gaffigan, the head of the police department project, told the Journal. He said city officials had studied the British surveillance system, which has more than 2 million cameras throughout the country, and were "intrigued by that model." One of the first uses of police surveillance cameras in Washington was April 2000, when authorities set up a network to monitor protests during a meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the newspaper said. On Tuesday morning, in response to the latest terror alert issued by the Justice Department, police activated a $7 million command center that was first used on Sept. 11. The command center, which has dozens of video stations for monitoring cameras, will remain in use until federal officials end the alert, the Journal reported. Cameras installed by the police have been programmed to scan public areas automatically, and officers can take over manual control if they want to examine something more closely. The system currently does not permit an automated match between a face in the crowd and a computerized photo of a suspect, the Journal said. Gaffigan said officials were looking at the technology but had not decided whether to use it. Eventually, images will be viewable on computers already installed in most of the city's 1,000 squad cars, the Journal said. The Journal said the plans for Washington went far beyond what was in use in other U.S. cities, a development that worries civil liberties advocates. Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union in New York, noted there were few legal restrictions of video surveillance of public streets. But he said that by setting up a "central point of surveillance," it becomes likely that "the cameras will be more frequently used and more frequently abused." "You are building in a surveillance infrastructure, and how it's used now is not likely how it's going to be used two years from now or five years from now," he told the Journal. X-From_: info@notbored.org Mon Feb 18 19:18:37 2002 X-Sender: notbored@popserver.panix.com (Unverified) Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 18:55:01 -0500 To: info@notbored.org From: NOT BORED!Subject: global panacea Status: RO X-Status: a cure for all ills, four stories 1. http://www.online.ie/news/irish_examiner/viewer.adp?article=1666318 Nurses demand closed-circuit TV in A&E units The Irish Examiner 18 Feb 2002 By Sen McCrthaigh NURSING unions are set to press for closed-circuit TV systems to be installed in accident and emergency units of all major hospitals as part of their calls for major improvements in A&E services. Unions representing the country's 40,000 nursing staff will demand the use of CCTV as part of increased security measures amid claims that they are operating in "a war zone" on a daily basis. The widespread use of security cameras is just one of a number of improvements which the main nursing unions are seeking as they begin balloting their members for industrial action next month. The Irish Nurses' Organisation and SIPTU, which together represent 38,000 nurses, have warned of strikes in A&E units across the country over their anger at a lack of security as well as overcrowding and excessive workloads in hospitals. Garda from local stations have recently begun to patrol two of Dublin's largest hospitals - the Mater and Beaumont - on a regular basis. A&E staff have expressed increased fears for their safety due to the growing number of assaults on hospital workers, especially in their units due to the number of patients arriving in hospitals while drunk. "Security at some hospitals is non-existent in situations where it has become routine for nurses to have to cope with both actual aggression and the threat of violence," said SIPTU nursing spokesperson Oliver McDonagh. Union leaders said yesterday that they would adopt a "wait and see" attitude on the proposed forum announced by Health Minister Michel Martin last week. Mr McDonagh said the nursing unions would want to see how the forum would address nurses' grievances before giving it their backing. "We will not support the forum if it is designed to become just another on-going, talking shop that won't produce results," said Mr McDonagh. The INO is planning two-hour stoppages among the country's 46 A&E units on March 13, unless its concerns are addressed. The largest nursing union is also proposing to escalate the strike to three hours on a weekly basis from March 20. 2. http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,1870,103562,00.html? Hongkong police to install surveillance cameras in pilot scheme Intention is to prevent crime, but critics say it invades privacy HONGKONG - Hongkong police plan to install surveillance cameras in Lan Kwai Fong, where 21 people were crushed to death nine years ago during New Year's Eve, to facilitate crime prevention and crowd control. The scheme, the first in the territory using closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to monitor a public promenade, has been slammed by critics as an invasion of privacy. The place was chosen to try out the new formula, which will subsequently be used in other places, because many major activities involving large number of people are often staged there. It is also where a New Year Eve stampede happened in 1993, and prevention of a repeat of the tragedy made it the top candidate among many locations. Besides, the move has the support of business owners in the area. Deputy Commissioner of Police Dick Lee said in a television interview that the trial at Lan Kwai Fong would cost about HK$2 million (S$460,000). He did not reveal the number of cameras to be installed, but said footage taken by the cameras would be transmitted to the Central Police Station. Mr Lee denied that the move was to snoop on people in public places. He stressed that notices reminding the public of the cameras' presence would be put up in Lan Kwai Fong. He added that under police regulations, if not given special approval to be retained, footages would be destroyed after three months. He did not elaborate under what circumstances special approval would be given, Ming Pao Daily News reported. Mr Lau Kong Wah, deputy chairman of the Legislative Council's security panel, said he was worried the plan would compromise the privacy of the people. While he acknowledged that the cameras would help in crowd control during special events, he said they should not be in operation on ordinary days, as there are other ways to maintain order. The police's move has no lack of supporters though. But they too stressed that the cameras had to be handled carefully, including not using them to shadow specific people and keeping to just the job of ensuring order in pedestrian flow. Mr Johannes Chan, head of the University of Hongkong's law department, said there must be rules on who had the right to look at the footages and procedures to ensure the system is not abused. 3. http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/02/02/13655685.shtml?Element_ID=1365568 5 Tuesday, 02/12/02 Franklin High students adjusting to surveillance MICHELLE LORD / STAFF http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/02/02/13657055.jpg Assistant Principal Todd Campbell views footage on the new security camera system at Franklin High School. By KNIGHT STIVENDER Staff Writer FRANKLIN Say a Franklin High student forgets to put her expensive biology textbook into her backpack and leaves it sitting on top of her locker all day long. In the afternoon, she realizes where she left it, but it's no longer there. Because of a new security camera system at the school, someone in the office can quickly search video footage of that row of lockers to see when and how the book disappeared. ''It's pretty cool,'' said Tim McNeese, information services director for the county school system. Franklin High is the first school in the county to use such technology, which has cost taxpayers roughly $45,000. District officials want to bring the system to other schools as money becomes available. They've asked for $60,000 to wire up Page High next year with even more cameras. While some students initially were wary of cameras rolling in every corner, Franklin parents seem pleased with the experiment. ''I don't think it's meant to be a Big Brother, spy situation. I think they're more to protect the school during the time when the students are not present,'' said PTO President Pat Anderson. A year ago, the school system heard proposals from several security companies seeking to install the camera system. Eventually, school system leaders decided they could get more for their money if they did it themselves. Bob Spong, maintenance director for the school system, estimates that the county saved $15,000 to $20,000 on the Franklin system by using in-house expertise. The result at Franklin High is a remote camera system that allows school administrators to select one of 32 different cameras and search for any activity during any time period. Several cameras keep track of activity outside, all of them programmed to record any motion 24 hours a day. Since the cameras only record when there's motion, the disk space used up by recorded images isn't overwhelming. In the hypothetical biology book situation, the student could tell an assistant principal she left the book on the locker after second period and discovered it missing after fourth. Using his desktop computer, the assistant principal could command the system to replay any movement around that particular area of lockers in the time frame given by the student. It's a system that, earlier this year, came in handy when some money was stolen at a wrestling tournament. The culprits, from outside Williamson County, admitted to the theft once they were told they had been captured on camera. ''We've created a safer learning environment for everyone,'' Spong said. McNeese said it would cost about $14,000 to add 32 more cameras at Franklin High, bringing the total to a number the school system thinks would be ideal. 4. http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/archived/2002/0215/news/asp/cctv.asp Someone to watch over you, but will CCTV work? Worried traders in Hampstead and Highgate have asked for CCTV to be introduced to protect their businesses from an increasing number of robberies, thefts and vandalism. Chris Leggett looks at what they can hope for from costly surveillance camera systems THE jury is still out on the impact of CCTV in cutting crime. Traders in Hampstead and Highgate want to follow in the footsteps of their counterparts in Camden Town and Kings Cross with a surveillance system to monitor their streets. Although Camden Council will help to prepare a bid for Home Office funds for cameras, officers admit that evidence relating to the effectiveness of CCTV is inconclusive. Camden says that it is willing to help traders in both Hampstead and Highgate where Haringey Council will also need to be involved but has warned businesses that they will need to raise money towards the installation and running costs. Kings Cross was the first area of Camden to be covered by a surveillance system in the mid-1990s. More than 20 cameras installed to cover one of Londons most notorious crime hot spots are monitored from a control room in the area. Eighteen cameras were installed in Camden Town in October last year. They are watched around the clock from a separate control room in Kentish Town. A state-of-the-art 20 camera system is being installed in Kilburn High Road at a cost of L500,000 and is due to go live in November. Despite spending thousands of pounds, Camden admits that statistics show mixed results. The councils own CCTV strategic review document for business groups says: Very few CCTV systems have been carefully evaluated and the resulting evidence on whether CCTV achieves its purpose is inconclusive. The recent evaluation of Kings Cross illustrated that crime continued to rise in the area covered by CCTV but by a slower rate than the surrounding areas. In the review of the Camden Town system, there has not been a dramatic decrease in crime. A more in-depth analysis, on a small base number, shows a slower increase in robbery in the area covered by cameras compared to the immediate vicinity. The evaluation showed a slower increase in violent crime in Camden Town than other areas and a drop in burglary. Drug arrests decreased but this was attributed more to police activity than to the presence of the cameras. Home Office studies carried out in Birmingham, Kings Lynn in Cambridgeshire and Newcastle also gave a mixed picture. Camden community safety officer Gennie Renard, who oversees CCTV bids, believes that installing cameras has other benefits that cannot be shown by crime statistics. Ms Renard said: Cameras give people a feeling of well-being and safety. The more ordinary people there are out on the street, the less crime will take place. CCTV also allows police to gather a lot of intelligence about where criminals are meeting and what they are doing, which can be used in the long term. It does not solve everything. Evidence shows that crime by people on drink and drugs stays the same as they are not deterred by the cameras, but it does have benefits. As well as bidding for funding for new street systems, Camden is looking to set up a log of all the CCTV systems operated by shops and businesses in the borough to pool resources. Camden police believe surveillance cameras are a useful tool. Sergeant Chris Paice, a CCTV co-ordinator for the Safer Streets campaign, said: The extensive coverage in the localities provides the police with quality evidence, intelligence and assistance on any criminal activity within Camden. It promotes confidence for the public to know that they are safer in this borough, being aware that CCTV monitors any criminal actions. cleggett@hamhigh.co.uk surveillance cameras as cure for all ills (3 articles) 1. rioting http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/northern_ireland/newsid_1847000/1847306.stm Thursday, 28 February, 2002, 16:06 GMT CCTV considered for riot areas TV surveillance would be used to identify suspected rioters http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1845000/images/_1847306_newcctv300.jpg The Northern Ireland security minister has said she is considering the introduction of CCTV in certain flashpoint areas of north Belfast. Jane Kennedy was speaking on Thursday after visiting officers operating new cameras at the Ardoyne sectarian interface. The TV surveillance would be used to identify rioters. On Wednesday, the police took the unprecedented step of issuing photographs of people suspected of involvement in street disturbances in north Belfast. The photographs were taken from police video taken during disorder in July and November 2001 and January 2002. The minister said: "If this system proves successful there is the potential for a wider application across north Belfast and I fully intend to keep a careful eye on the effect the camera has on the security situation in this area. "It's my hope it will prove so effective in helping police to manage the situation that we will find it will have uses elsewhere." 'Bearing fruit' Ms Kennedy said the poster campaign was already bearing fruit. "I thought it was a very interesting development and I believe there have already been a number of phone calls to police responding to the photographs," she said. Jane Kennedy: "Keeping a careful eye" She rejected claims that those pictured on the posters may have had their human rights infringed. "I'm satisfied that the actions police have taken are perfectly proper," she said. "The evidence will have to be presented and the photos are an important part of that." The new camera is situated at the junction of Ardoyne Road and Alliance Avenue - the scene of some of the worst rioting in recent years. The twin, digital cameras are monitored from Antrim Road police station. ======================= "It's my hope it will prove so effective in helping police to manage the situation that we will find it will have uses elsewhere". Jane Kennedy, Security minister http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1845000/images/_1847306_jkennedy150.jpg 2. criminal activity http://www.northantsnew.co.uk/ref/news_et.asp?ID=5881 Spy cameras to combat town crime MINIATURE cameras could be used in a bid to cut down on nuisance crime in residential and business areas. Corby Community Safety Partnership plans to expand its CCTV network in the next three years. Nine new permanent cameras will be put up next week in Corby, after the Home Office gave the partnership just under L200,000 last year. The new camera sites will be on Mull Drive, Rowlett Road, outside Ennerdale Road Community Centre, Gretton Brook Road, Occupation Road, outside Corby police station in Elizabeth Street, two on Sower Leys Road, Gainsborough Road But the partnership also plans to introduce two mobile camera units and smaller mobile cameras, in the next three years, although they could be here as early as three months time. Mini-cameras will be put up temporarily outside schools, businesses and houses where crimes like car theft, vandalism and juvenile nuisance have been a problem. Two larger mobile cameras - linked by radio to Corby control centre - will also be bought. The larger cameras cost L6,500 and the small cameras cost L500 each, they would be bought with cash from government grants. Bosses of the partnership claim success already, with 1,592 arrests since the CCTV system was installed in 1994. Inspector Graham Foot, chairman the Community Safety Partnership said: I think it is a very cost effective way to fight crime. One of the problems is that it can cause crime to be displaced, because it moves on from the areas with cameras, but the mobile cameras mean this does not happen. We currently have three microwave cameras which are quite difficult to move. These are a lot easier to move. The mobile camera for the fire service was very successful. Thursday, February 28, 2002 3. senior citizens in rest homes http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=940583&thesection=news&th esubsection=general Video surveillance shows rest-home patients hit 22.02.2002 Video surveillance in a Christchurch rest-home showed an employee punching and slapping elderly dementia patients, the Christchurch District Court was told. James Hemi Tapara, aged 54, who admitted a charge of assault, had worked at the rest-home for eight years, mainly as an activities officer, before the abuse was discovered by the video surveillance last October. The name of the rest-home has been suppressed. The surveillance began when complaints about Tapara's behaviour surfaced after he lost his role as activities manager and was placed on personal care duties. The rest-home engaged a private investigator to set up the surveillance. Prosecutor Vanessa Sugrue told the court the cameras filmed Tapara manhandling and hitting two patients, in one case pulling a man out of bed roughly, twisting his ear and slapping him on the leg. In the case of the second victim, Tapara pulled him roughly into bed and pushed him down harshly by the head when he tried to get up. When confronted, Tapara agreed some of his actions were improper. He said he was under stress and frustrated in the job. Judge John Bisphan said jail was likely and remanded him on bail until next month. - NZPA 'Talivan' Alert: Hawaii Drivers Aren't Smiling About Candid Cameras http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,47182,00.html Tuesday, March 05, 2002 HONOLULU - Some Hawaii drivers mockingly call them the "talivans," and radio disc jockeys take wicked delight in announcing the location of the vehicles. The Hawaii Transportation Department has begun using van-mounted cameras to catch speeders in the act - a practice some motorists consider so underhanded they are trying to subvert the system. The cameras, introduced on Oahu two months ago and operated by a private company, are coupled with radar and automatically photograph a speeder's license plate. A ticket is then issued by mail to the car's owner. The devices are supposed to catch violators the way red-light cameras have been doing for years, without the danger of a police chase. Proponents say that the system will save lives and that it has already proved itself by slowing down traffic. Drivers and civil liberties lawyers complain that the system unfairly assumes that the owner of the car was the person behind the wheel. They also say that the cameras are an invasion of privacy and that the state is more interested in speeding-ticket revenue than safety. "It's pretty crazy. Unless they can really identify you and everything, I think it's a pretty worthless situation," said 44-year-old John McGee, who beat his ticket on a technicality. Even lawmakers who supported the project are having second thoughts. The Senate this week is expected to vote to repeal the program. House lawmakers on Friday voted to require clearer photographic evidence of who was driving. Republican state Rep. Charles Djou called the program "an unreasonable intrusion by government into individual lives." "Many of my constituents have complained to me that this photo enforcement system is sort of a 'gotcha' law enforcement," he said. "It is a high-tech bounty hunter system that captures not only the lawbreakers but also law-abiding citizens." Many states use cameras to catch people running through red lights. Only about a dozen communities - in Hawaii, Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, D.C. - are using the cameras to try to catch speeders, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. City officials in Denver last week suspended their program and dismissed all tickets after a judge ruled that the system illegally gave police powers to a private contractor. The judge also ruled that the program violated state law by appearing to compensate the contractor based on the volume of tickets issued. Hawaii, which has only three short freeways, is the first state to pass a statewide law allowing photo-enforced radar along state roads. But about 200 tickets have been thrown out so far because of technical glitches and legal loopholes big enough to drive a truck through. Many were dismissed because the tickets did not specifically state that the person issuing the ticket - the camera operator - was certified to run the radar equipment. That problem was later fixed. Last week, a judge threw out dozens more tickets, ruling that drivers going less than 10 mph over the speed limit should not be ticketed because doing so would conflict with Honolulu Police Department practice. Some radio stations and newspaper Web sites have been gleefully broadcasting the location of vans. State officials, stung by allegations that they were not interested in safety, eventually responded by issuing a list of where the four vans might be at any given time. KSSK morning disc jockeys Michael W. Perry and Larry Price on Thursday enlisted isteners and got the locations phoned in within a few minutes. "Four for four," announced Price, reviewing the location of each van for motorists. Transportation Director Brian Minaai described the wrangling over the project as "all part of the learning experience." "I think we all can admit that the pace of all the cars on the freeways are a lot slower, if not more in line with the speed limit," he said. In Canada, deaths dropped 20 percent on roads where speed cameras were used, and in Britain, 28 percent fewer crashes involved injury, according to Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute. "The whole idea is to deter the offense" he said, "and that's what speed cameras do." Brent White, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, said many people are worried about where this might lead. "If the government can put up these cameras to catch people going a couple miles per hour over the speed limit, what's to keep them from putting up similar cameras to catch people doing other things, like jaywalking?" he said. two stories 1. http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=08032002-020813-4448r # # 'Spy' cameras vs villains in Britain # # By Al Webb # United Press International # Published 3/8/2002 3:18 PM # # LONDON, March 8 (UPI) -- Big brother is big business in the battle # against crime in Britain, but photo-shy villains have developed # a bag of new tricks to elude the gaze of thousands of surveillance # cameras that now dot its cities, towns and villages. # # With 1.5 million closed-circuit television systems watching its # streets, office buildings, schools, shopping centers and roads, # Britain is one of the most closely monitored nations on the # planet, and the government is spending another $115 million for # more TV eyes. # # But crime is soaring across the country. In London, a city of # 8 million people, murder is going on at a record pace. Street # robbery, the very crime that CCTV is supposed to be best at # deterring, will reach 50,000 this year. # # The problem, one exasperated police source told United Press # International, is that "the TV cameras can't be everywhere. There # are hundreds of thousands of nooks and crannies left, everywhere # you look, and this is where criminals are increasingly operating. # And when a camera shows up, they move elsewhere." # # Many of the villains are adapting. Some are targeting luxury # cars on the move so that any view a TV camera gets of them is # fleeting at best. Others conceal their street muggings by grabbing # their victims in a clinch that, on CCTV, looks like nothing more # than a romantic hug. # # Police say criminals discouraged by the prospect of an unwanted # TV appearance in London or other cities take to commuting to # the countryside where prospective victims are more trusting and # the pickings are easier. # # "There is more security-consciousness now in urban areas, which # makes it less easy for the thief, than in the countryside where, # generally speaking, people have tended to be more lax," said # Nicholas Bond, a spokesman for NFU Mutual, an insurance company # specializing in rural communities. # # "There is a feeling that opportunist crime is moving out toward # the rural areas," said Ian Fraser of CGNU, one of Britain's # largest household contents insurers. # # The British government is convinced that TV surveillance will # remain a major anti-crime weapon and recently announced that # it is financing the installation of more than 200 closed-circuit # monitoring systems, from London to provincial cities and towns. # # "CCTV has repeatedly proved its effectiveness in the fight against # crime and the fear of crime," said John Denham, a minister in # the Home Office. "Knowing that there is an extra set of eyes # watching over their communities helps to reassure people that # they will be safe." # # Experts are convinced that more advanced technology is making # CCTV an even more valuable tool. # # In the city of Hull, for instance, a test project in one # crime-ridden area is based on a new, Internet-based CCTV system # using tiny cameras disguised in street lamps or concealed on # buildings to transmit digital pictures to a monitoring center # around the clock. Authorities said an independent evaluation # of the system showed that in the first five months of operation, # car crime in the area was down 80 percent, shoplifting was down # 69 percent, robbery was down 68 percent, burglary was down 49 # percent and violent crime is down 30 percent. # # "As the system is digital," said project manager John Marshall, # "there are no video tapes, and images are transferred instantly # from camera to computer, where the data can be transferred to # police stations by the Internet." # # Other local governments are interested in the idea, but cost # could become a major deterrent. The system in the Hull trial # cost an estimated $570,000 for protection of 3,200 residents. # # Meanwhile, other areas are reporting less-than-spectacular success # with big brother technology. In London's Newham district, 300 # cameras are dotted around the central business area yet street # robberies increased by one-fifth in 2001 from the previous year, # and car thefts climbed by 3.6 percent. # # "Although CCTV cameras might be useful within a broadly based # anti-crime strategy," said one specialist, "turning the nation's # city and town streets into seamless surveillance zones is itself # no substitute for proper policing." # # A three-year study commissioned by the British government and # conducted by the Scottish Center for Criminology suggested that # "spy" cameras had little or no effect on crime. It concluded # that "reductions were noted in certain categories, but there # was no evidence to suggest that the cameras had reduced crime # overall." # # "The cameras appeared to have little effect on clear-up rates # for crimes and offenses" the report said. # # The findings "have taken the stardust out of our eyes about this # new technology," said Jason Dittion, a criminologist and the # study's main author. # # CCTV's defenders point out that it was such technology that # recorded the abduction of 2-year-old James Bulger in a Liverpool # shopping center by a pair of 10-year-old boys who later bludgeoned # him to death. The TV evidence was key to their arrest and # conviction. # # At the other end of the scale, police forces across the land # are using surveillance cameras to "capture" and convict thousands # of speeders and other traffic violators -- and the local # government in Merton, in south London, is using its 60 CCTV # surveillance cameras to zero in on litterbugs. # # The use of surveillance cameras in policing has, perhaps # inevitably, attracted frowns from civil liberties groups, who # see them as an infringement on individual rights. # # "I don't think anyone has really thought through the implications # of all this," said Simon Davies, of the civil rights watchdog # group Privacy International. # # "What tends to happen is you start penalizing extreme or unusual # behavior, which leads to social exclusion," Davies said. "And # it won't be just criminals. A safer and more efficient Britain # is not necessarily a better society." # # The police see life under the camera's view somewhat differently. # # "When cameras are properly targeted," said Graeme Gerrard, a # spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers, "they # can deter offenders, reduce the level of crime and increase the # feeling of safety for those using our public spaces." # # The surveillance camera as a public amenity is here to stay, # but the arguments about usefulness, legality and ethicality have # only just begun. 2. http://www.eveningstar.co.uk/content/News/NewsStory.asp?Brand=ESTOnline&Category =News&ItemId=IPED12+Feb+2002+10%3A39%3A01%3A707 Mobile CCTV idea scrapped due to cost February 12, 2002 18:05 SECURITY in mid-Suffolk's outlying towns and villages has received a blow with the scrapping of a mobile CCTV camera initiative. High costs have forced Mid Suffolk District Council to pull out of a scheme to plant mobile CCTV cameras around remote towns and villages in the area. Despite the scheme being described as a "priority", councillors withdrew the scheme after in-depth studies revealed that the cost of operating the scheme would be in excess of funds currently available. Home Office funding of L62,350 would have contributed to the set-up costs, but made no provision of operational costs. Potential stumbling blocks posed by the government's human rights and data protection legislation would limit the use of the cameras to where there is evidence of "significant" crime or disorder activity. It could also mean that parish councils would only be able to operate the cameras with the help of costly administrative support from the police or district council. Reduced opportunities for using the cameras would lead to a reduction in contributions to operating costs from partners in the scheme. The greater administrative costs that would then be placed on the district council would be "too great a burden", said officials. Penny Otton, leader of the council, said the decision was taken "because it has to spend public funds wisely". "There is disappointment across all parties that this scheme which would have helped make Mid Suffolk an even safer place to live, has had to be put aside. Mobile CCTV cameras are a local priority and we are determined that mobile CCTV cameras will be on the agenda for future years. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5320-2002Mar22.html Rules Urged for Surveillance On Hill, Officials Pledge Limits for Cameras on Mall, in City By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, March 23, 2002; Page B01 Federal and District officials acknowledged to a congressional panel yesterday that they have not developed written policies to protect the privacy of residents and tourists before moving forward with plans to use video surveillance across the city and on the Mall. Legal and security analysts urged Congress yesterday to regulate the growing use of video surveillance, and the officials said they welcomed public scrutiny. John G. Parsons, associate regional director for the National Park Service's National Capital Region, and D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said their agencies will develop internal regulations and submit them to lawmakers. "This hearing has brought us to an awareness that we need standards and policies," Parsons told the House Government Reform subcommittee on the District. "Policies and procedures governing our use of video were not as specific and formalized as they should be," Ramsey said, echoing criticism by civil liberties groups. "These are legitimate issues that need to be clarified." Parsons said that by October, the Park Service will install cameras at six sites -- the Washington Monument and the Jefferson, Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Vietnam Veterans and Korean War memorials. He said the $2 million to $3 million program was adopted for one reason: "These icons of democracy are high targets of terrorist activity. That is [the cameras'] sole purpose." Images will be monitored round-the-clock by U.S. Park Police, who plan to store them for an undetermined period before recording over them, Parsons said. Promising to report back to Congress, Parsons acknowledged that rules also must be set for who will have access to tapes and how cameras will be operated. A Park Service spokesman declined to comment beyond Parsons's testimony. Members of Congress who called the hearing said the agencies' swiftly evolving adaptation of technology indicated the need for U.S. guidelines, at least for federal facilities and agencies. "As I learn more about this issue, it is becoming more evident that Congress may have to step in and ensure that this technology does not take away our right to be left alone," said Rep. Constance A. Morella (R-Md.), subcommittee chairman. She said the panel will seek a congressional study of the effectiveness of closed-circuit television as a law enforcement tool worldwide. "Once this system is in place, it will be too tempting for the police not to use it to its full force," she said. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said public input was lacking. "People are at least entitled to know about it before, and not after, the cameras are set up," said Norton, who has called for a presidential commission to balance the war on terrorism with American values of an open society. The American Bar Association, acknowledging the rise of "surveillance by gadget," adopted guidelines for government use of physical surveillance in 1998, said Ronald Goldstock, chairman of the group's Criminal Justice Section Standards Committee. The Bar's standards could help set a federal base line for law enforcement nationwide, Goldstock said. The standards could begin with federal agencies and expand as a template for state, local and tribal authorities, said John D. Woodward Jr., senior policy analyst at the Rand think tank. Johnny Barnes, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area, said his group would lobby for the elimination of the District system, or at least in favor of regulations that would subject police violators to civil and criminal penalties. Goldstock said: "Legislation . . . is only a first step. There has to be training, transparency, auditability, accountability and oversight. It doesn't end with a manual." District officials said that they welcomed public debate and that their system has not recorded any images. Instead, the city's computerized network, capable of linking 1,000 government video cameras that monitor streets, subway stations, schools and federal facilities, is turned on only to observe major events or in response to terrorist alerts issued by the federal government, officials said. Ramsey saidhe expected regulations ordered by the D.C. Council to be available in draft form late next week. The D.C. Federation of Citizens Associations will host a public meeting with city officials to discuss the program at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Charles Sumner School, 1201 17th St. NW. "Our use of video is need-driven," Ramsey said. "We are using video because we should, not simply because we can." Only 12 police-owned cameras are tied into the system at all times, Ramsey said. Other networks are activated at the request of or with the consent of agencies that run their own closed-circuit television systems, such as D.C. public schools, Metro or the U.S. Capitol Police. The police cameras, which can rotate 360 degrees and magnify images 17 times better than the human eye, are in high-traffic areas such as Dupont Circle, Georgetown, Union Station, the Smithsonian Institution Castle, the National Gallery of Art and the Hotel Washington near the White House. ========================================= ___ Camera Locations ___ The Metropolitan Police Department has 12 cameras that offer 360-degree views and magnification 17 times better than the human eye. Here are the locations of the cameras that are installed and operational and what they offer views of: Old Post Office Pavilion, 1100 Pennsylvania Ave. NW For views of Pennsylvania Avenue. Two cameras give views of the Capitol and the White House simultaneously. Smithsonian Institution Castle, 1000 Jefferson Drive SW For views of entire mall in both directions. LEnfant Plaza, 480 LEnfant Plaza SW For views of I-395 South, the Pentagon and Reagan National Airport. Department of Labor, Second and Constitution Avenue NW For views of the Capitol as well as the intersection of Constitution and Pennsylvania avenues and Third Street. Voice of America, Third and Independence Avenue SW For views of Independence from the Capitol to 14th Street and Third Street north to the Labor Department. Dupont Circle, 1350 Connecticut Ave. NW For views of the DuPont Circle area (not currently available). Park Tower--Rosslyn, 1001 19th Street North, Arlington, Va. For views of the Key Bridge, Potomac River, Kennedy Center and Potomac shoreline. Union Station--Phoenix Park, 520 N. Capitol St. NW For viewing the plaza in front of Union Station Hotel Washington, 15th and Pennsylvania Ave. NW For views of the intersection of 15th and Pennsylvania east to about 12th Street and west to the White House. Banana Republic in Georgetown, M Street and Wisconsin Avenue NW For viewing the intersection of Wisconsin and M (soon to be operational). National Gallery of Art East Wing, Third and Constitution Avenue NW For use only for special events. Columbia Plaza, 23rd and Virginia Avenue NW For views of the Whitehurt Freeway, Roosevelt Bridge and Memorial Bridge (currently being installed). SOURCE: Metropolitan Police Department ========================================= 2002 The Washington Post Company http://www.s-un.co.uk/lanarkshire/hadvertiser/NEWS/Cctv.html Warning to CCTV users HUNDREDS of CCTV users in Lanarkshire could be liable to prosecution because they are failing to comply with recent Data Protection legislation, according to security experts ADT Fire and Security. Under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998, all commercial CCTV systems must notify the Government Information Commissioner and be compliant with the terms of the Act by October, 2001. It costs just L35 for CCTV users to notify the Information Commissioner, regardless of the number of systems they operate. However, ADT believes hundreds of CCTV users across the county are risking fines of up to L5,000 because they have not complied with the Act. Eddie McAlinden, design manager for ADT in Lanarkshire, said: "In the past decade, the use of CCTV for surveillance and crime control has grown to unprecedented levels. "It is estimated there are now more than 300,000 cameras currently monitoring shopping areas, housing estates, car parks and public facilities across the UK." In an attempt to regulate the use of CCTV and to ensure users follow a code of practice, the Government reformed the Data Protection Act 1998. Under the terms of the Act, all CCTV users had to notify the Information Commission by October, 2001. Under the terms of the Act, all commercial CCTV systems must now be labelled with signs informing people they are being filmed, the reason the system is installed, contact details of who is operating the system and information of what is being recorded. Mr McAlinden added: "ADT has been heavily involved in informing both our own clients and other CCTV users of the implications of the Act. However, judging by the feedback we have received there are thousands of CCTV users throughout Lanarkshire who simply are not aware of the Act and are risking prosecution due to lack of awareness." 1. THE 2002 U.S. BIG BROTHER AWARDS 2. Spy camera found in women's toilet in Kallang 3. New Web Cameras Allow Spying by Subscription 4. Lens thief caught as CCTV camera catches him in act 5. Police balk at surveillance cameras 6. Attack victim's campaign for CCTV 7. CCTV hampers search for missing autistic man 8. Soldiers criticise Predator spy drone 1. THE 2002 U.S. BIG BROTHER AWARDS: CALL FOR NOMINATIONS On April 18, 2002, Privacy International will hold the fourth U.S. "Big Brother Awards" to name and shame the public and private sector individuals and organizations which have done the most to invade personal privacy in the United States in the past year. Three distinctive "Orwell" statutes of a golden boot stomping a head will be presented to the government agencies and officials, companies and initiatives which have done most to invade personal privacy in the previous year. A "lifetime achievement" award will also be presented to the organization that has systematically invaded privacy over a long period of time. Previous "winners" include The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency, DoubleClick, ChoicePoint, The FAA's BodyScan system, the Department of Commerce and Microsoft. The judging panel, consisting of lawyers, academics, consultants, journalists and civil rights activists, are inviting nominations from members of the public. Nominations can be made directly from the site: http://www.privacyinternational.org/bigbrother/us2002/ Privacy International will post the 'most popular' current nominations on its' site. "Brandeis" awards will be also be given out to champions of privacy. The Brandeis Award is named after US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who is considered the father of American privacy law, describing privacy as "the right to be left alone." The awards are given to those have done exemplary work to protect and enhance privacy. Previous winner include Phil Zimmermann, creator of PGP, Beth Givens, founder of the Privacy Rights Clearing House and Robert Ellis Smith, editor of the Privacy Journal. The Big Brother Awards are now in their fourth year. There have been ceremonies in the UK, the US, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, France, Denmark and the Netherlands. This event will mark the 20th ceremony. Further information can be found at on the PI website at http://www.privacyinternational.org/bigbrother/. The initiator of the awards, Privacy International, was founded in 1990, and campaigns on a wide range of privacy issues across the world. More information on Privacy International is available at: http://www.privacyinternational.org/ The ceremony will be held at the Cathedral Hill Hotel in San Francisco, Cal at the 2002 Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference. More information on CFP 2002 is available at: http://www.cfp2002.org/ ================================== Chris Hoofnagle Legislative Counsel Electronic Privacy Information Center +1.202.483.1140 (tel) +1.202.483.1248 (fax) hoofnagle@epic.org http://www.epic.org/ http://www.privacy.org/ 2. http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,1870,111248,00.html? Spy camera found in women's toilet in Kallang A WOMAN got the shock of her life on Wednesday when she noticed a tiny camera staring down from the false ceiling of her toilet cubicle. The victim spotted the camera in the cubicle located in Block 155, Kallang Way and rushed out crying for help. Her colleagues removed the camera, which has a lens no bigger than a five-cent coin. -- SHIN MIN The printing company employee rushed out to her office next door crying for help, reported Shin Min Daily News. Her colleagues later removed the camera from the toilet on the seventh floor of Block 155, Kallang Way. The block is part of an industrial estate. The remote-controlled camera had a lens no bigger than a five-cent coin. Its electricity source came from a power socket above the ceiling. Mr Mo Zeliang, 41, an employee of the printing company, said the culprit was likely to be nearby or could even have been someone from the building because he believed the camera had a limited range for the transmission of images. The seven-storey building has more than 10 toilets for women, he said. Unlike the seventh floor, the workers on the other floors were mostly men, he said. The printing company, which occupies most of the seventh floor, has more than 20 women employees, out of some 60 workers. The women who were interviewed by the Chinese daily said that they used the toilets at least four to five times a day. In recent years, there have been several cases where men were caught filming or peeping at women in toilets. A 24-year-old National University of Singapore student was jailed three weeks in September 2000 for filming a woman student urinating. In July that year, a 35-year-old man who filmed two women friends secretly while they used the bathroom in his flat was jailed two months. In May 1999, a 43-year-old forklift driver was sentenced to three months' jail for watching two women tenants shower in the bathroom of his flat through a closed-circuit television camera. 3. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/16996.html New Web Cameras Allow Spying by Subscription By Tim McDonald NewsFactor Network March 28, 2002 Uses for the cameras include monitoring areas in which current surveillance cameras are generally ineffective, such as certain home security situations. A Japanese company on Thursday unveiled two new series of network cameras that can be controlled from personal computers over the Internet. The cameras, from Kyushu Matsushita Electric Co. Ltd., come equipped with a Web server function and an Ethernet port. Users can connect to the Internet with the camera device through a cable or ADSL modem, and still pictures or video data can be imported over the Net >from the cameras to PCs or mobile phones. Camera angle also can be controlled remotely. Monitoring 'An Everyday Thing?' One of the cameras, the KX-HCM170, is equipped with wireless local area network (LAN) capability. The image sensors in both cameras feature 320,000 pixels, and various picture sizes can be selected. The cameras can store more than 500 stills in their internal memory. According to the company, nine hours of data at a rate of one picture per minute can be recorded. Uses for the cameras include monitoring areas in which current surveillance cameras are generally ineffective, such as certain home security situations, and monitoring kindergartens or crowded restaurants. The cameras cost US$524 and $750, respectively. "As the number of broadband subscribers drastically increases, watching images of other places from home could be an everyday thing," the company said. Spying by Subscription In February, the company launched a service called "Miemasu Net Service" targeted toward network camera users. People who connect their cameras to the Internet through the service can access those cameras remotely from almost anywhere. To access a camera, a user must transmit the domain name of the camera to the company's DNS server, and the server will tell the user the IP address allocated to that camera. Earlier this month, Sony unveiled a camera with a built-in LAN port that can send images through a local area network. Those images then can be displayed by general-purpose Web browsers. That camera's built-in port enables direct access to networks without a PC and can handle as many as 100 users simultaneously. Its uses include remote monitoring and surveillance of schools, bank ATMs and other high-risk areas. The camera costs $1,251, and Sony officials said it will become commercially available in August. 'Security Incidents' by E-Mail Also earlier this month, Melco announced what it said is Japan's first wireless network camera, which comes with an embedded Web server function and a LAN port. Entering the camera's IP address into a Web browser from a PC on the network enables users to monitor real-time images picked up by the camera. Given a global IP address, users can monitor over the Internet. The camera features an alarm system that triggers a function enabling still pictures of an "incident" to be sent via e-mail. The camera allows simultaneous monitoring in four, nine or 16 split screens. Earth to Moon to Rio Network cameras have become vital in monitoring and surveillance and in fighting many types of crime. The United Kingdom is probably the world leader in this area, with 2 million network cameras in use. In addition, Internet cameras have become popular on the Web, with sites offering users Earth and moon views from satellites in orbit above various cities around the globe. 4. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_555670.html?menu= Lens thief caught as CCTV camera catches him in act A thief in Sweden has pleaded guilty to stealing a lens from a CCTV camera that filmed him in the act. The 21-year-old from Gothenburg stole the lens while his friends withdrew cash from a nearby bank machine. He pleaded guilty to theft and criminal damage. He says he stole the lens as a joke. According to the GT newspaper, the lens is worth L320. He threw it away shortly after stealing it. Police arrested him the day after the theft. He will have to pay an admission of guilt fine as well for the repair of the camera, the paper says. Story filed: 14:52 Thursday 28th March 2002 5. http://www.thestar.com//NASApp/cs/ContentServer?GXHC_gx_session_id_=faea43c8a7dd 7909&pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1017270085540&call_page =TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News&col=968793972154 Police balk at surveillance cameras Can't afford to pay officers to monitor Dundas Square Jennifer Quinn Police Issues Reporter Cameras watching over the new Dundas Square development are a good idea, Toronto police believe. But when it comes to who will monitor and fund them, the concept is still out of focus. Yesterday, Toronto police decided their officers wouldn't be the ones guarding the screens. Citing a huge minimum cost nearly $700,000 a year in salaries alone and the desire not to be seen as "Big Brother," the police services board is sending the idea to city hall to sort out. "It's not something we can assume," Chief Julian Fantino said before yesterday's meeting. "We don't have the operational budget for it. So we're supporting the idea, the concept, the project. "But it can't be left to the police to sustain it. We don't have the resources." A report prepared for the Toronto Police Services Board by a working group examining the use of closed circuit television said the city should be responsible for managing the use of cameras, and the community should be involved in the decision-making process. "A program involving monitoring activity in the public domain must be driven by the city, BIA, (and) community rather than the police to avoid `Big Brother' sentiments," said the report, which was approved by the board. "To alleviate any fears of inappropriate use of cameras or recorded images, while maintaining a viable crime prevention program, the program must belong to (those groups) rather than the police." Late last year, the federal privacy commissioner decided that police-monitored cameras in Kelowna, B.C., were a violation, saying "wholesale monitoring" of people "certainly runs afoul of the requirement to collect only the minimum amount of personal information required." Currently, the security plan for Dundas Square involves three video surveillance cameras and private security on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The cameras, paid for by the city-supported board charged with looking after the square, would be focused on the "one acre of granite" that is the main part of the development. But the members of the Downtown Yonge Street Business Improvement Area (BIA), which represents about 2,000 businesses from Richmond St. north to Grosvenor St., and from Bay St. to east of Yonge St., would like to see more cameras in more places than just the new development. "We're in support of what the police are recommending here: That this item go back to the City of Toronto, go through its committee process, and get larger community support," James Robinson, the executive director of the Downtown Yonge Street BIA, said yesterday. Robinson said a survey showed 83 per cent of the association's businesses supported video surveillance. "We see it as a way to add to the revitalization of the downtown Yonge area to make people feel safe, that kind of thing," he said. "Dundas Square is a logical place to start. There would be security cameras in the square, and what's logical is to expand those cameras to survey the area streets and sidewalks." Though police say the estimated $660,000 cost of assigning officers to watch the cameras is too much for them, they would like to help the city decide how to implement video surveillance. "We don't think that we should lead it," said Deputy Chief Mike Boyd. "We think we should be a player at the table." 6. http://icsurreyonline.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200surreyheadlines/page.cfm?obje ctid=11741700&method=full&siteid=50101 Attack victim's campaign for CCTV Mar 28 2002 Croydon Advertiser A father of four who was kicked in the face while travelling on a tram is campaigning for CCTV cameras to be installed. Paul Timms, 44, was shocked to discover a ruthless attack, in Lodge Lane, New Addington, which left him with five stitches was not recorded because no CCTV cameras are fitted on trams. He said: "I assumed it would be picked up on camera but the transport police explained the only CCTV camera is on the platform and only activated when an emergency button was pressed. "I could not believe it how on earth could I have managed to get off the tram and press a button while I was getting my head kicked in. "It is ridiculous." Mr Timms, who has been drinking with friends with in the Cunningham Pub earlier on Saturday evening, was approached by the suspect just before 11.30pm. Roger Harding, general manager for Tramtrack, explained the company was investigating the cost of installing CCTV cameras on trams at the moment. 7. http://www.online.ie/news/irish_examiner/viewer.adp?article=1698746 CCTV hampers search for missing autistic man The Irish Examiner 27 Mar 2002 By Mchel Lehane MISLEADING video footage was used to trace an autistic man who has been missing for a week, it emerged last night. Conor Jones, 20, who is mildly autistic, left his home on Nicholas Street in Limerick city at 7.30am last Tuesday March 19. He later boarded the Cork train at Colbert station. It was initially thought Conor took the 9.20am train but the timers on video monitors at the station were an hour fast. This allowed garda to establish Conor got on the Cork train at 8.20am and his family believe he changed trains at Mallow and travelled on to Kerry. Conor left a note for his mother Marie saying he was going to Kerry and he promised to contact her in two days. "He took a survival manual with him and we believe he planned to climb a mountain somewhere in Killarney. We're becoming more worried with each passing hour," his sister Siobhan said. Conor, who has no experience of climbing on his own, was due to start an office and computer course. His family believe this made him anxious. Garda are anxious to speak to a man of thin build with dark hair who was seen talking to Conor at the train station just after 8am last Tuesday. 8. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,13-249149,00.html March 27, 2002 Soldiers criticise Predator spy drone by Katty Kay Washington: The unmanned Predator spy drone, above, hailed as the technological star of Operation Enduring Freedom, has been criticised by US soldiers on the ground. They say that the drones constant streaming of images back to the US during fighting at Shah-i Kot earlier this month encouraged commanders thousands of miles away, who had only its limited view of the battlefield, to chip in with unhelpful advice. The L3 million drone would be better restricted to tasks such as pinpointing the position of the enemy, senior US officers in Afghanistan said. X-From_: info@notbored.org Fri Apr 5 22:27:54 2002 X-Sender: notbored@popserver.panix.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2002 22:32:08 -0500 To: info@notbored.org From: NOT BORED!Subject: news about surveillance cameras (worldwide) 1. CCTV system "on its knees" (Scotland) 2. Report: Support for U.S. Surveillance Wanes (USA) 3. CCTV for the 21st Century (Canada) 4. Sharp eyes and surveillance to stop shoplifting (Australia) 1. CCTV system "on its knees" http://www.inside-scotland.co.uk/dumandgall/standard/NEWS/CCTV.html.html DUMFRIES town centres CCTV system is on the verge of total collapse. Only four of its 13 cameras are working at full capacity. And according to one town centre business leader the situation has become embarrassing. The cameras in Queensberry Square, Academy Street, Bank Street and Newall Terrace, are the only ones fully operational. Seven of them, at the Fountain, Burns Statue, Buccleuch Street, Loreburn Street, Friars Vennel, Munches Street and Galloway Street, are either totally defective or are in only partial use. And the remaining two, at the Loreburne Shopping Centre are no longer part of the scheme, as its new technology is not compatible with the town centre cameras. By Ken Johnston The situation has reached such a level that the manager of the Loreburne Centre, Jim Ireland, believes pictures from the working cameras can no longer be used to prosecute in the courts. Mr Ireland, who also heads the towns Tradesafe Partnership, has been campaigning for years for the cameras to be updated. He said: The cameras in the town centre are seven or eight years old, which is beyond their life expectancy. I get the impression that the council do not really care. They seem to think that once the cameras are up that is it and if they break, they break. The radiolink was introduced to businesses on the basis that it would work hand-in-hand with CCTV, but I would suggest it is less than half as effective without the cameras. Dumfries would be a shoplifters paradise if it was not for the radiolink scheme. It is that which is keeping the whole place together. He added: Dumfries is seen as a leading light in the safer trade environment initiative and a number of different forces have come down to have a look at what is happening here. But if they were to ask to look at the current town centre CCTV system, it would be embarrassing. Mr Ireland has recently spent tens of thousands of pounds on new camera systems at the Loreburne Centre to add to the state-of-the-art technology in place. He told the Standard he is fed up spending money on his own centre while all around him the council system is failing. And he warns that unless something is done soon it could have a serious legal implication. He said: Under the terms of the Data Protection Act, owners or operators have to comply with three rules, one of which is the system is regularly maintained to the standard at which it was installed. This has simply not happened. When it was installed all the cameras were fully working without exception, now they do not, it does not comply with the Data Protection Act. The whole system is on its knees. Both the council and the police, who are responsible for the funding and operation of the scheme, are looking at new systems. Crime Prevention Officer PC Andrew Hawes admitted that a number of the cameras were not working, mainly because of old age. He said: There are only a handful that are operational. There are three not working at all because of a cable fault, but that will be rectified. There is a maintenance contract for the cameras but because of the age of >the system and the fact technology has moved on, steps are being taken at replacing it. The money to install it came from the Scottish Office and the system was seen as being obsolete in five years, but there was no ongoing programme for replacing it. The system does have its faults. PC Hawes confirmed that the current set-up also contravened the Data Protection Act. He said: According to the letter of the act, pictures from working cameras could not be submitted in court, however CCTV has never been challenged in court because the system was not maintained. If it was to happen, it would be up to the court to decide on whether it was accepted. Meanwhile, the councils CCTV officer, Brian Thomson said he was currently looking at various new schemes for the town centre. He added: We have got in contact with various companies and we expect to hear back from them sooner rather than later. The age of the system is the big problem. 2. Report: Support for U.S. Surveillance Wanes http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/17111.html By Lisa Gill NewsFactor Network April 4, 2002 The poll's deepest dip showed up in interviewees' declining confidence that government will use its expanded electronic monitoring capabilities in a proper fashion. A poll taken just after the six-month anniversary of the September 11th attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon showed that Americans' support for and confidence in electronic governmental surveillance is waning. The new poll, conducted by Harris Interactive, said that immediately after September 11th, supporters of government surveillance of e-mail and cell phone conversations were in the majority at 54 percent. But the research firm found that group is now in the minority, with just 44 percent of respondents supporting monitoring. Fifty-five percent of respondents favored government monitoring of Internet chat rooms and other forums, compared with 63 percent in September. Also, 9 percent fewer respondents favored closer monitoring of banking and credit card transactions to trace funding sources. Privacy Foundation executive director Stephen Keating told NewsFactor that he is not surprised by the results. He noted that a similar change in U.S. sentiment occurred after the Oklahoma bombing in 1995. "I think those polls are driven by events and a psychological state of mind, rather than real knowledge of whether we're any less or more secure. We haven't had significant domestic terrorism since September 11th, so people are feeling less vulnerable," Keating said. Government Confidence Declines The greatest change was apparent in interviewees' distinct lack of confidence that government will use its expanded electronic monitoring capabilities in a proper fashion. Fourteen percent fewer respondents than in September said they are "very confident" or "somewhat confident" that the government will not abuse its monitoring capabilities. In response to this decline in trust, Keating noted that it is difficult for the American public to discern how effective the government has been in fighting domestic terrorism. "It's hard for people to evaluate if, say, the Patriot Act has had some effect. We haven't seen evidence, or we haven't been told, that [the government] has prevented new acts of terrorism," he said. Other Security Measures Drop The Harris poll also found that support for face recognition technologies that can scan audiences at public events for suspected terrorists has dropped by 5 percent since September, to 81 percent. A similar decline has occurred for support of expanded camera surveillance of public streets and other public places. Support for adoption of a national identification system for all U.S. citizens dropped by 9 percent since September, to 59 percent. Harris Interactive polled 1,017 people over the telephone between March 13th and March 19th, with accuracy of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Americans at Odds Martin Yeung, a policy analyst at the Center for Democracy and Technology, told NewsFactor he believes that while the United States is not in fear for its immediate security, the nation remains uncertain of how to maneuver through a changing security climate. "I think the American people are trying to grapple with the situation, with the new realities. We're trying to balance security concerns versus the right to privacy and civil liberties," Yeung said. Fear Not Harris developed the poll with Dr. Alan Westin, a privacy issue analyst, who noted that the poll's results indicate Americans are less fearful for their safety than they were in September. "The high-anxiety, very high approval rates for expanded law enforcement powers expressed in late September 2001 have moved, six months later, to a still high but somewhat more cautious level, reflecting American concerns that liberty and due process intrusions be kept to the necessary minimum," Westin said. Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), told news sources that he believes there has been an increase in discussion about civil liberties since September 11th. He also noted that the poll results are more conservative than those obtained by similar surveys. EPIC, which has fought hard against a national identification system, has filed suit against the Office of Homeland Security seeking the expedited release of documents regarding development of such a system. 3. CCTV for the 21st Century, http://www.wsrn.com/apps/news/art.xpl?id=4120467&f=NEWS BETACOM CORPORATION INC - Unveils Its Innovative CCTV, the VisAble IMAGE Thursday, April 4, 2002 09:40:38 AM - Market News Publishing Vancouver, BC, Apr 04, 2002 (Market News Publishing via COMTEX) -- Betacom Corporation Inc., an innovator in the development of Vision and Technology Solutions for Independent Living, announced that it officially unveiled its innovative VisAble IMAGE(TM) the CCTV for the 21st Century, to significant and widespread acclaim from end-users, vision specialists, dealers and distributors. The introduction took place at the California State University at Northridge (CSUN) Conference and Trade show held March 20th-23rd 2002 in Los Angeles, California. Offering the most complete range of end-user required features as standard equipment, the VisAble IMAGE(TM) is positioned to revolutionize the closed circuit TV (CCTV) industry and to capture a significant portion of this US$ 150 million market. "The VisAble IMAGE(TM) CCTV has an innovative X-Y table and electronic Extended Scan digital camera (patent pending) which ensures that, for the first time ever, the user can maintain a constant eye-to-screen distance. These unique features significantly increase the user's comfort and reading ease," said Brian McCarthy, President and CEO of Betacom Corporation. "We developed the VisAble IMAGE(TM) based on extensive feedback from expert end-users, vision specialists, clinical researchers and CCTV specialists from around the world. The result: our first production run of 600 units is more than 81% conditionally pre-sold. Customers include dealers and distributors from around Canada, the USA and internationally." The VisAble IMAGE(TM), competitively priced against the industry's offerings which range between US$ 2500 to US $ 4000, is offered in both color and black/white versions. Each version incorporates several innovative features as standard: 17" XVGA flat panel display screen, electronic camera scan for extended page reading range, horizontal and vertical text stretch (kerning) to increase legibility of compacted text, multiple color select & monochrome choices. Another industry first, the VisAble IMAGE(TM) has an optional three year warranty extension available at an unprecedented price of $99US/$150Cdn. The VisAble IMAGE(TM) has moved quickly from development to production prototype and is now being readied for commercial release in June 2002. About Betacom Corporation Betacom Corporation Inc. is the global leader and innovator in the development of vision and technology solutions for independent living. Its high-technology based vision enhancement products address the needs of the 135 million individuals worldwide with age-related vision conditions. These conditions include: Diabetic Retinopathy, Macular Degeneration, Glaucoma, Retinitis Pigmentosa as well as others. Betacom Bridges, the adaptive technology division, develops, trains, supports and distributes solutions for those with learning, communication and computer access needs. To see video clips of Betacom in the News, visit us on the web at: www.betacom.com This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. Potentially, many factors could cause our actual results to vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated or expected. Betacom Corporation Inc. does not intend and does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. 4. Sharp eyes and surveillance to stop shoplifting http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/04/02/1017206202155.html By Liz Minchin April 3 2002 Brian Dureau believes that security systems are useful but staff need to know what to look for to prevent shoplifting. Picture: VIKI LASCARIS It's not often a surveillance salesman tells you that even the best security system could be a waste of money. But that's the message Direct Security manager of corporate services Brian Dureau wants business to hear. While he advocates installing digital surveillance systems - especially from his company - Mr Dureau says a crucial but often neglected way to prevent shoplifting is staff training. "It's all right to buy a surveillance system, but staff have to know what to look for to prevent shoplifting in the first place," he said. "From the business' point of view, it isn't about catching shoplifters and taking them to court, but actually stopping them targeting the business." But just as no security system is thief-proof, relying on good customer service alone to prevent shoplifting can be dangerous, as boutique retailer Husk found out the hard way. The business has been operating since 1995 in one store each in Toorak and Albert Park, specialising in local fashion, cosmetics and crafts. General manager Susie Stanford says that for most of that time, the company assumed shoplifting wasn't an issue. "As a boutique, we thought we'd be isolated from the problem, because the way we serve is quite intensive, as opposed to a larger store where it's all self-serve," she said. Late last year, they realised they had been wrong, and seven weeks ago had a security tag and surveillance system installed. Ms Stanford says a typical retailer loses between 0.5 per cent and 1 per cent of turnover to shoplifting, but that Husk stores were losing around 2 per cent to 3 per cent before they invested in the extra security. It still hasn't stopped shoplifting: staff know of three incidents in that time, including one involving a regular shopper, who may actually have been a regular shoplifter. So this week the Husk staff will sit down with Mr Dureau and review the surveillance tapes, using the "regular shopper" incident as a training exercise, to find out what they could be doing better. "As well as acting as a deterrent during peak times, the system is also about making everyone face the cold hard facts of shoplifting," Ms Stanford says. "If we can see that we haven't done as well as we could have in protecting ourselves, then that's a real opportunity to train and improve." The Australian Retailers Association estimates that last year shoplifting cost retailers around the country $1.05 billion in lost revenue. Shoplifting also results in hidden costs to businesses. "If a business doesn't contain shoplifting, it places suspicion on staff, other shoppers, and it affects the whole atmosphere of the store," Mr Dureau says. "So it's counter-productive in that sense too." He says one of the key areas in which staff need training is in identifying shoplifters, not by their looks, but by their actions. "A real problem for retailers is that professional shoplifters are not walking in with dirty jeans on but are usually well dressed." Mr Dureau says that although there are no rules when it comes to shoplifters, there seem to be more women than men doing it, even among the professionals who make a living out of it. "It's not unheard of for people to make $2000 to $4000 a week doing it, and there are rumours in the industry of shoplifters who fly interstate for a day's work." The retail manager at Husk's Albert Park store, Sally Bailey, has worked in retail since 1990, and agrees that a well-trained retail worker can spot most shoplifters in the crowd. "Shoplifters can be anyone, but their actions tend to give them away. "They do a lot of touching of stock, as well as looking back around the store to see who's around. It can be really quite obvious when you know what to look for." Ms Bailey says in her experience, good service is the most effective deterrent to shoplifters. So far, no one has come up with a way to eradicate the problem, but retailers such as Husk hope at least to cut their losses. Mr Dureau says the hardest part is finding the balance between security and good service: "After all, you want people to feel happy when they walk into your shop, not like they're going to be body searched."

Contact the NY Surveillance Camera Players

By e-mail SCP@notbored.org

By snail mail: SCP c/o NOT BORED! POB 1115, Stuyvesant Station, New York City 10009-9998



NY Surveillance Camera Players

NOT BORED!