Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Surveillance Catches Woman and Two Children Stealing From Store on Christmas Day

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Clark has spent years reviewing videos of store crimes. But nothing prepared him for the video shot on Christmas Day at a Paramount clothing shop.

The surveillance tape shows a woman and two small boys walking into the store. As the woman distracts the clerk, the children grab money out of an unlocked cashier's drawer. The boys are also seen testing the store's antitheft alarm.

"This is the first for me," Clark said. "I've heard of it, but I've never seen it captured on video and with the children this young.

Read more here.

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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

71-year old women caught on camera stealing out of Church Collection Plate

A 71-year-old church volunteer was caught on surveillance camera stealing thousands of dollars from St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Pontiac Michigan was charged Monday in the crime.

71 year old Salley Crake entered not guilty pleas in a Pontiac courtroom Tuesday to felony charges of embezzlement and larceny. The 71 year old women was caught on camera stuffing money down her pants. When she was arrested Monday she had $800 on her.

Police said the women had been stealing hundreds of dollars once a week from the church .They don't know how long she has been stealing money from the church but suspects it was long before she was caught.

Read more here

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Monday, November 30, 2009

Internet sales of hidden 'nanny' cameras booming

There’s nothing like a stout mix of fear and falling technology prices to whip up sales of hidden cameras.

Surveillance experts say sales of “nanny cams” are exploding, fueled by distrust and easy access to inexpensive, quality equipment from Web sites around the world.

Businesses are buying the tiny cameras to catch malfeasant employees or spy on competitors. Individuals are snapping them up to watch homes, children or suspected wayward spouses.

“People do not trust people anymore,” said Helen Bowser, who, with her husband, Chris Bowser, owns The Protection Pros, an online retailer of surveillance equipment based in Morristown, east of Indianapolis.

Tim Wilcox, who owns International Investigators Inc., a private investigation firm in Indianapolis, said easy availability is merging with fears as old as humanity itself.

Read more here

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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Hotel staff take action during stabbing attack

The Prince George Hotel's staff and management are being praised by the RCMP for aiding in a weekend stabbing.

The victim, a 43-year-old man, and the assailant, a 46-year-old female, happened to get into an altercation on George Street in front of the hotel. Owner Ted Coole stressed that the two were not on the hotel's premises that day, and in fact they had both been ejected and barred from their property for past behaviour.

It was the hotel staff's quick action and the use of their surveillance video that halted the nasty situation and brought the help everyone respectively needed, said Coole.

Read more here

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Where will Google send its new Street View tricycles?

They might almost be men selling ice cream.

They ride around on tricycles, a big fridge-like box perched on the rear wheels, a brightly colored logo on its side.

And yet that 10-foot-tall mast between the rider and the box tells you that this isn't pistachio peddling. No, this is surveillance, Google-style.

Those nice people at Google Street View became frustrated that their cars couldn't access every single corner of the world. Indeed, earlier this year the company removed footage of one of its cars after it transgressed traffic regulations. Then there are those pesky pedestrian areas and fine places of historical interest that don't allow cars within their boundaries.

Read more here.


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Monday, August 17, 2009

Surveillance Cameras Simply Relocate Crime

As with so much encouraging news these days, the success of the surveillance cameras at Pioneer Park comes with a caveat of concern.

To begin with, the cameras have done exactly what they were supposed to do. They have reduced crime. Calls to police about drug-related problems have been cut almost in half. And because the cameras at the corners of the park are so visible, only two dealers have braved them. Both were arrested.

All that is a plus.

The concern comes later — when dealers begin to disperse and do their business in surrounding neighborhoods instead of congregating at the park.

In short, criminals don't go away. They just go elsewhere.

Read the rest of the article here.




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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Visual Management System Unveils Cost Effective, Portable, Wireless, Digital Surveillance System

FlexTH is the first of its kind to deliver an affordable monitoring solution that just about anyone can install and requires no wiring. FlexTH can be used to remotely monitor just about any location including, but not limited to, homes, small businesses, vehicles and mobile services such as police and emergency responders.

Read more here.


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Thursday, August 6, 2009

CA Supreme Court Allows Employee Surveillance

The California Supreme Court has ruled in an invasion of privacy suit that a company isn’t liable for installing secret video equipment in an employee’s office for legitimate business reasons.

Read more here.


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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Home Surveillance Cameras Catch Robbers in Act

Two men kicked in the back door of a man's house and robbed the house...and much of it was caught on the homeowner's surveillance cameras.

Read more here.

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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Bush's Surveillance Plan Under Scrutiny

Not enough relevant officials were aware of the size and depth of an unprecedented surveillance program started under President George W. Bush, let alone signed off on it, a team of federal inspectors general found.

The Bush White House pulled in a great quantity of information far beyond the warrantless wiretapping previously acknowledged, the IGs reported. They questioned the legal basis for the effort but shielded almost all details on grounds they're still too secret to reveal.

Read more here.



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Monday, July 6, 2009

Old Fashioned Surveillance Helps Close Sex Offender Loop Hole

For weeks, Pierce County sheriff’s deputies watched the small house in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood, making sure their man was there.

He was a sex offender, convicted of second-degree rape in King County in the 1990s. Under state law, as a Level 3 offender – considered likely to offend again – he had to register with the county and state where he lived so his neighbors could be alerted.

Read more here.




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Monday, June 22, 2009

Congress Concerned About NSA Email Surveillance

The US' National Security Agency is facing scrutiny over the breadth of its domestic surveillance program. According to critics in Congress, its recent penetrations of private telephone calls and emails are broader than previously stated, The New York Times reports.

A new law, enacted by Congress in 2008, gave the NSA greater freedom to collect American's private messages as long as such collections were an incidental byproduct of investigating people "reasonably believed" to be overseas. But it is difficult to distinguish between email being sent by ordinary Americans and being sent from foreign countries — a gray area that's driven some lawmakers to question whether the privacy of Americans in general is being adequately protected.

Read more here.


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Thursday, June 11, 2009

CA Debating Privacy Issue

The California Supreme Court seemed unlikely to authorize employers to spy on their workers with hidden cameras.

At the same time, some members of the court appeared skeptical that two women who discovered a surveillance camera in their office had suffered serious harm.

Meeting for oral argument this past week, the court considered a lawsuit brought by the women against their employer for installing a hidden camera in their office.

Read more here.


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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Man Opens Fire on Woman After She Rejects Him at Bar

A manhunt is underway for a man who opened fire on a woman after she rejected his advances at a Cleveland bar.

Surveillance cameras were rolling as the man approached the woman inside the bar on St. Clair Avenue Sunday night.

Cleveland Police say the suspect started a conversation with the woman and asked her for a date.

When she declined, his reaction was chilling.

Read more here.


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Wednesday, May 6, 2009

City Establishes Surveillance System to Catch Criminals

A decision last week to buy and install surveillance cameras at key Lake Elsinore locations has marked a new stage in the city’s graffiti-fighting efforts.

“It’s a big piece,” said Mark Dennis, the city’s communications manager. “I think it’s a unique approach that Lake Elsinore has taken.”

To date, a city graffiti task force has spent about a year studying the problem and evaluating various responses.

Since a newcomer’s reaction to a community is often based on first impressions, the task force gave the city’s graffiti problem a high priority, Dennis said.

During their study work, task force members frequently ran across media reports and government accounts that favored the use of surveillance systems.

Read more here.



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Thursday, April 23, 2009

Libertarian Group Outraged About Camera Surveillance

The cover of the pamphlet Libertarian party members handed out last Thursday is emblazoned with a comic book style poster of a Stalin-esque figure, the headline reading "Big Brother is Watching Yo," the "U" obscured by an Orwellian thought-crime fugitive. The pamphlet's implication being that the fugitive is UNCG students and Big Brother is the closed circuit television (CCTV) camera security system UNCG Police operate on campus.

Read more here.


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Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Surveillance Cam Shows Home Invaders

Clackamas County deputies released surveillance photos Monday of a man being sought in connection with a home invasion.

The incident occurred at 11:55 a.m. on March 12 at an apartment complex on Southeast 82nd Drive in Clackamas. Frances Gibson said she woke up inside her apartment and found a man reaching over her and grabbing for her purse.

"I didn't think it was real at first," Gibson said. "I thought I was dreaming."

Read more here.


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Monday, March 30, 2009

Limits on MD Police Surveillance Passed

Maryland police departments must document reasonable suspicion of criminal activity before using covert tactics to investigate political activists, under legislation approved Friday by both chambers of the General Assembly.

After months of controversy over Maryland State Police surveillance of peaceful protest groups, the Senate and House of Delegates unanimously approved separate bills. After slight differences between the two versions are resolved, the legislation is expected to be sent to Gov. Martin O'Malley. A spokeswoman said Friday that he would sign the bill.

Lawmakers crafted the bills in response to the state police program uncovered last summer when the American Civil Liberties Union sued for information about it. The bill, which would also prohibit law enforcement officers from collecting political files on activists not under criminal investigation, applies to all police departments and expands on O'Malley's initial proposal.

Read more here.


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Thursday, March 12, 2009

Consumer Electronics Affects Video Surveillance

Every January, Las Vegas hosts the Consumer Electronics Show, one of the biggest electronics shows in the world. Five years ago, vendors treated attendees to such innovations as megapixel cameras, next-generation DVD players that used the latest H.264 compression technology, large flat screen TVs and monitors, and new wireless technologies with much improved bandwidth for moving more data over the network. Fast forward to 2008 and look what vendors at the big physical security shows -- ISC West and ASIS -- are now showing: megapixel cameras, H.264 compression, wireless technologies with higher bandwidth and large flat-screen monitors.

In the '70s, it was the military and government that drove technology advancements. In the '80s and '90s, it was the business sector providing the push. Today, the enormous consumer electronics market is the driving force behind new technologies. The shift should not be surprising considering that Consumer Electronics Association reports that consumer electronics have grown into a $700 billion market worldwide. In the $10 billon video surveillance market, vendors are realizing it is smart to piggyback on innovations originally developed for consumers and repurposing them for physical security applications.

Read more to find out some of the consumer electronics trends that will play out in the physical security video surveillance arena in the coming year.


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Friday, February 20, 2009

Pittsburg to Add More Surveillance Cameras

You may have not noticed them before, but surveillance cameras are set up in various spots around downtown Pittsburgh.

Now officials are saying that even more cameras may be added to help protect people and businesses. More and more cities are starting to use surveillance cameras to cut crime and are seeing amazing results.

District Attorney Stephen Zappala held a discussion with business owners and groups to talk about the use of surveillance cameras throughout the city's business districts and high crime neighborhoods.

Read more at KDKA.com


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