In August 2007, the ACLU issued a report on the proliferation of video surveillance systems in California.
California cities are moving quickly to install video surveillance cameras on public streets and plazas without regulations, with little or no public debate, and without an evaluation of their effectiveness. Under the Watchful Eye, a new report issued by the California ACLU affiliates, examines the justifications for and consequences of this dramatic expansion in government video surveillance of public space at the local level.
Yesterday, the ACLU publicly scolded the Sacramento PD for having poor communication skills.
The Sacramento County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said it has filed a California Public Records Act request for information about a controversial grant for the purchase of 32 surveillance cameras and four mobile surveillance trailers by the Sacramento City Police Department.
The decision to file the request was made because city and law enforcement officials have been "less than forthcoming about details of the plan, and the people have the right to know," said James Updegraff, chair of the ACLU/Sacramento board of directors.
Mayor Kevin Johnson announced, and Police Chief Rick Braziel confirmed in April that a $615,000 grant was being used to purchase the cameras.
However, the ACLU said it has been unable to obtain any more information about the plan and how it would impact the public's privacy.
"In fact, as many studies have shown, video surveillance cameras do not make people safer. Cameras do not prevent or reduce violent crime, including homicides, or drug crimes and prostitution," said Updegraff.
You're not alone ACLU, I filed a Freedom Of Information Law (FOIL) request over two years ago (which was approved) for crime counts in Manhattan's ninth precinct. The Ninth precinct has a tremendous amount of public housing with hundred of cameras and and basically an entire police building focused on public housing. I still have not received my data.
So is it a conspiracy that police departments are "less than forthcoming"? Or are FOIL requests just a beaurocratic clusterf@ck that get the lowest priority possible? The unfortunate truth is that many governments do not reply to all FOIL requests within a reasonable timeframe for various reasons. Government can actually make money off FOIL requests if they run it like a business, but they don't.
Over time, services like crimereports.com will become more successful and crime counts will be published to the web. This is important for researchers, because we will be able to turn around effectiveness reports much more quickly. When the Iranian government released some vote counts, two PHD students at Columbia University turned around a paper called "The devil is in the digits" literally overnight. If goverment begins collecting the correct data and publishing it in a reasonable timeframe, everyone would be aware just how effective both public and privately operated surveillance equipment really are.
Lord Mayor Bloomberg (for life) are you listening?
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