Not too long ago, FCFA wrote a piece on the New Orleans crime camera system and categorized this system as a public surveillance failure.
Why Dell got into the camera reseller business is anyone's guess. Now they are in the middle of a lengthy lawsuit in which a state court judge found Dell Inc. in contempt of court:
A state court judge on Thursday found Dell Inc. in contempt of court, saying the computer company was making a "mockery" of the system with its alleged piecemeal production of documents in a civil lawsuit over New Orleans' crime camera system.
Judge Rosemary Ledet also ordered Texas-based Dell to pay $25,000 in sanctions. Plaintiffs' attorneys had requested nearly $182,000 in fees and expenses.
Dell attorney Phillip Wittmann disputed claims that the company was dragging its feet and playing games in discovery, saying that more than 160,000 pages of documents have been produced, e-mail and other information has been handed over as it's been uncovered and that the company has been acting in good faith.
The lawsuit is playing out amid the backdrop of a federal criminal investigation into the city's technology office and crime camera contracts. At least two people — including Mark St. Pierre, whose technology company had ties to Greg Meffert while Meffert was the technology chief and is alleged to have paid for at least a portion of some trips taken by Nagin — have acknowledged subpoenas to appear before a grand jury. Meffert attorney Randall Smith has maintained that the company, NetMethods, never did business with the city and said Meffert had Nagin's blessing to do outside work while at City Hall.
A watchdog group has sought an ethics investigation into the financing of some Nagin trips.
It seems like Dell's efforts to get in the surveillance equipment reseller business have pretty much stopped after their exchange with the New Orleans city government. I think it would be quite ironic if Dell and city workers are found guilty of the crime of misconduct when attempting to install a system that is supposed to "reduce crime". Perhaps they should have first installed cameras in their city's technology offices.
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