Tag Archives | Cameras

Game Of Surveillance Camera Destruction Hits The United States

By on February 20, 2013 in News 9

The previously discussed trend of making a game out of breaking as many public surveillance cameras as possible, known as Camover, appears to have crossed the Atlantic, with a team calling themselves the Barefoot Bandit Brigade claiming a score of 17 in Washington state:

17 Security Cameras Disabled and Destroyed in Puget Sound Region — In the opening weeks of February, 2013, we have removed and destroyed 17 security cameras throughout the Puget Sound region. This act is concrete sabotage against the system of surveillance and control. It is also a message of solidarity and a wish of strength to the Seattle Grand Jury Resisters, those currently incarcerated and those not. Finally, this act announces our participation in the game of CAMOVER, called for by comrades in Germany.

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A Case Of Asserting Your Rights To Film

By on November 21, 2012 in News 2

Ok, so we highly recommend that you do not actually do what you’ve seen in this video. It’s best to be calm, cool, collected and talk in a normal tone when addressing police officers. This footage was shot a couple of years ago, when Luke Rudkowski had a very bad day and was still maturing as a journalist. WeAreChange strongly believes in the right to film in public, but many times police officers incorrectly view this as a crime and use intimidation to stop the legal right to film. This time the opposite scenario played out, which we wanted to share with you.

Via WeAreChange

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An Urban Surveillance Map Of Vancouver

By on November 14, 2012 in News 3

The Vancouver Public Space Network mapped CCTV locations in the metropolitan core, revealing the geography of surveillance:

The preliminary map that we created indicates the places where surveillance cameras could be found prior to the installation of extra cameras for the Olympics.  We are particularly concerned about the surveillance legacy that the Olympics may leave behind, and will be monitoring the city government to make sure that this network is removed once the party is over. In all, the map represents the locations of 1500 of the 2000 cameras we found.

Public spaces are inherently places in which we can be observed by other people, and where we can observe others. However, the VPSN is concerned about the way that intense video surveillance, particularly networked, centrally monitored systems, might negatively affect the way that people enjoy public spaces. In the United Kingdom, which has intensive public video surveillance, security cameras have been used by security officers to harass people and to profile individuals based on race and socio-economic status.

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On Deploying Cameras To Watch Other Cameras

By on September 27, 2012 in News 5

In what seems as if it could become a neverending paradox, Business Insider on a locality in Maryland in which it has become necessary to outfit the city with a network of surveillance cameras to observe the previous layer of cameras:

Police in Palmer Park, Md., plan to deploy cameras to surveil the other other cameras in their district. Ari Ash of WTOP talked to police in the area, who said that local people had started targeting the speed cameras police put up in intersections, as well as surveillance cameras.

Prince George’s County Police Maj. Robert V. Liberati, who’s the commander of the Automated Enforcement Section, says each camera can cost up to $30,000. They needed to do something to deter the camera saboteurs. Liberati thought cameras to watch the cameras was a good solution. One is in place already, and the department hopes to have a dozen more by the end of the year.

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On How Computers See Race

By on August 23, 2012 in News 4

Does technology covertly holds the biases of its creators? Alexis Stevens in Cluster Magazine writes about an unintended dimension of of facial-recognition-based surveillance software:

“HP Computers are Racist” is a 2009 YouTube video in which two electronics store employees demonstrate how face recognition and video tracking technology on Hewlett-Packard computers works more accurately for people of whiter skin tones. “I think,” one of the employees remarks with biting accuracy, “my blackness is interfering with the computer’s ability to—to follow me.”

The company issued an apology after the clip went viral, suggesting that face-detection algorithms have more difficulty identifying the contrast that helps discern facial structure in low lighting. An ironic outcome of this corporate oversight is that while black people are more likely to be eyed as suspicious and tracked in real life (e.g. stop-and-frisk), the engineering of webcams for a presumptively white target audience renders people of color more invisible to technology.

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NYPD Teams With Microsoft To Launch Panoptic ‘Domestic Awareness System’

By on August 1, 2012 in News 5

Is the NYPD and Microsoft together too much of a good thing? Russia Today on the forthcoming new model of urban centralized surveillance:

The NYPD is teaming up with Microsoft to track action across the city. Later this week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to come forth with more details about a new surveillance project the head of the NYPD hinted at last week. In conjunction with engineers at Microsoft, the NYPD will unleash an advanced “domestic awareness system” that will combine its already extensive city-wide surveillance system with law enforcement’s established databases in order to track the moves of suspected terrorists.

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly first commented on the program over the weekend at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, but those close to the project have failed to extrapolate much further other than on the basics.

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Smile! Get Ready for Tiny Police Uniform Cameras

By on November 9, 2011 in News 27

Uniform Police CameraVia NPR:

The next time you talk to a police officer, you might find yourself staring into a lens. Companies such as Taser and Vievu are making small, durable cameras designed to be worn on police officer’s uniforms. The idea is to capture video from the officer’s point of view, for use as evidence against suspects, as well as to help monitor officers’ behavior toward the public.

The concept is catching on. The cameras have been adopted by big city police departments, such as Cincinnati and Oakland, Calif., as well as dozens of smaller cities, such as Bainbridge Island, Wash., where the Vievu camera was initially tested by Officer Ben Sias.

“The only thing that really was different about doing business is that I’d tell the person that we’re being recorded,” Sias says. He sees the camera as a kind of insurance policy.

“In this job, we’re frequently accused of things we haven’t done, or things were kind of embellished, as far as contact,” he says.

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New Apple Technology Stops iPhones From Filming Live Events

By on June 18, 2011 in News 61

Bad AppleF@ck you, Apple (had to get that out of my system). Fox News reports:

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Fans at concerts and sports games may soon be stopped from using their iPhones to film the action —as a result of new technology being considered by Apple, The Times of London reported Thursday.

The California company has plans to build a system that will sense when a person is trying to film a live event using a cell phone and automatically switch off their camera.

A patent application filed by Apple, and obtained by the Times, reveals how the software would work. If a person were to hold up their iPhone, the device would trigger the attention of infra-red sensors installed at the venue. These sensors would then instruct the iPhone to disable its camera.

Apple declined to comment.

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TSA Considering Banning Photography Of Checkpoints

By on June 12, 2011 in News 8

TSA logoCarlos Miller writes on Pixiq:

The Transportation Security Administration is considering changing its policy on photographing security checkpoints after several videos depicting questionable incidents between passengers and TSA screeners were posted on Youtube.

News of the possible changes in policy was posted Friday on the TSA Blog, the same blog that posted that it is permissible to photograph checkpoints, even though most screeners act as if it has always been illegal.

The reason it is considering changing its policy stems from a Youtube video that was recorded in Phoenix when a woman opted-out of the metal detectors and chose to get patted down by a TSA screener.

The woman began yelling hysterically that she had been molested by the screener.

Meanwhile, the woman’s son was recording the incident and continued to do so, even though several TSA screeners told him he was breaking the law.

It is impossible to tell whether the woman was molested in the video, but it’s clear that the TSA screeners were creating their own laws in dealing with the videographer — as they’ve done so many times before.

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