Milwaukee Police Use New Vehicle for Surveillance

MILWAUKEE - The police department is now using a “Rhino.” The armored vehicle uses surveillance cameras to spot crime in problem areas.

It was parked last Friday in the 800 block of S. 31st Street. Colonel Ollis has lived on that block for 38 years.

“Ever since we lived here this has been a problem street,” Colonel Ollis said.

Ollis and his neighbors say the last couple of years have been especially challenging.

“We've been for a year getting broken into, they've stolen stuff out of our car, gang activity, selling drugs,” Angie Dejesus, resident, said.

That’s why MPD chose this location to park its new crime fighting tool. The truck is outfitted with 24-hour surveillance cameras and will travel to different problem spots.

”The whole purpose is to let people know they're being watched and behave themselves,” Alderman Bob Donovan, Milwaukee’s South Side, explained.

Alderman Donovan says it’s capable of being monitored at the district station also in nearby squad car in fact.

“To be honest with you, I thought it was gonna be a big joke, just another trick, but it does work and it's well worth it!” Ollis said gladly.

Ollis says this is the quietest his neighborhood has been in two years.

“It's only been here four days. You've actually seen a difference in four days?” TODAY’S TMJ4 reporter Melissa McCrady asked.

“Oh yeah, it’s a difference of night and day,” Ollis replied.

Angie Dejesus complains though, that the Rhino hasn’t stopped drivers from speeding up and down her street and that it’s too late.

“Now it's getting cold. Of course it's going to be quiet. Nobody’s gonna be outside in the cold,” Dejesus explained.

The Rhino is parked on a temporary basis, but Ollis is hoping it’ll stay for good.

“I know it can't stay here forever but I wish it could stay here forever,” Ollis admitted.

A private company donated the Rhino. It does not cost taxpayers any money.

Read more here.

Bags over Birmingham surveillance cameras 'farcical'

Putting bags over cameras linked to counter terrorism in parts of Birmingham has been described as "farcical" by a privacy campaign group.

Big Brother Watch described the 218 cameras, put up in predominantly Muslim areas, as "excessive surveillance".

The Safer Birmingham Partnership (SBP) said it would not switch the cameras on until after a public consultation.

Plastic bags are being put over some of the overt cameras to reassure the public.

A number of the cameras installed are hidden.

The SBP said bags would not be placed over these because it did not want their locations revealed.

Dylan Sharpe, campaign director of Big Brother Watch, a group set up by the founders of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "Without a doubt I think some of these (cameras) should be removed.

"It is a farcical situation sticking plastic bags over them."

Read more here.

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.

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.

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

Study Critical of San Fran Surveillance Cameras

San Francisco’s surveillance cameras in high-crime areas do not prevent violent crime, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California.

The long-awaited study by the UC Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society found the program is hurt by lack of training and oversight, a failure to integrate footage with other police efforts, poor quality cameras, and what may be a fundamental weakness of cameras as anti-crime devices.

Read more a KCBS.

Cameras Becoming More Common in Schools

Video surveillance cameras are becoming a common feature of student life - now even in middle and elementary schools - as local officials seek greater security for children and school property.

In district after district, the desire for additional security and the cost of replacing or maintaining property destroyed by vandalism have routinely overridden qualms about possible invasion of privacy.

In Lexington, the Clarke Middle School will be the latest to have a video security system installed next summer - becoming the third school in town to have one - but school officials have yet to draw up a written policy governing safeguards of civil liberties for those under camera surveillance.

"I would expect them to have a system in place to keep them private and for police use only," said Debora Hoard, copresident of the Parent Student Teacher Association at Lexington High School. "If there was an incident, then I would expect them to use them - but not the kind of daily monitoring that a Big Brother society would make me think of."

Lexington School Committee chairwoman Helen Lutton Cohen conceded there are no written rules in place that spell out who can see the surveillance tapes, how long they are kept, and what they are used for, to protect privacy.

SURVEILLANCE TAPE OF MURDER SUSPECT RELEASED

The three men wanted for the shooting murder of William Junior Appiah should call their lawyers and surrender.
Toronto homicide Det.-Sgt. Gary Grinton today released video taken Tuesday afternoon in the playground of 4400 Jane St. of the three men who killed the 18-year-old Brampton man.
"This was, in my view, a direct, targeted murder," Grinton said.
"The three people walked up to him and he was killed without hesitation, receiving gunshot wounds to the head and torso," he said.
"My message to them is to do the right thing," Grinton said. "Talk to a lawyer. Come in and talk to us."
The video, taken from a surveillance camera on the south side of the apartment building, showed three men arrive individually and then a few moments later, the trio were captured by the camera running away towards a parked silver Japanese car.
Grinton said the confrontation between Appiah, known as Yoshi after the character from Super Mario video games, and his killers lasted only seconds.

Dallas To Increase Number of Surveillance Cameras

Dallas is installing more surveillance cameras, which police say have proven effective in the city's downtown.

Police said crime fell 18 percent in downtown Dallas since 40 cameras were installed.

"It's definitely had a positive impact on public safety in the Central Business District," Deputy Chief Vincent Golbeck said.

The cameras have caught on tape incidents such a robbery and the takedown of a man wanted for sexually assaulting a child.

The number of cameras in downtown Dallas will soon double. The organization Downtown Dallas is helping to fund an additional 40 cameras, most of which will be in the Arts District.

Downtown Dallas' John Crawford said the association wants to make people feel they are safe and secure in the area.

"We want the cameras there where we have the highest concentration of people and also, too, where you've had chronic issues -- open-air issues -- that surveillance cameras can have an effect on," Golbeck said.

Artist-Hackers Use Surveillance Cameras to Create Art

Britain, somewhat proudly, has been crowned the most watched society in the world. The country boasts 4.2 million security cameras (one for every 14 people), a number expected to double in the next decade. A typical Londoner makes an estimated 300 closed-circuit television (CCTV) appearances a day, according to the British nonprofit Surveillance Studies Network, an average easily met in the short walk between Trafalgar Square and the Houses of Parliament. Public opinion on this state of affairs is generally positive, according to recent polls. And how useful is CCTV in busting bad guys? Not much, according to Scotland Yard. In terms of cost benefit, the enormous expenditure has done very little in actually preventing and solving crime.

Right under Big Brother's nose, a new class of guerrilla artists and hackers are commandeering the boring, grainy images of vacant parking lots and empty corridors for their own purposes. For about $80 at any electronics supply store and some technical know-how, it is possible to tap into London's CCTV hotspots with a simple wireless receiver (sold with any home-security camera) and a battery to power it. Dubbed "video sniffing," the pastime evolved out of the days before broadband became widely available, when "war-chalkers" scouted the city for unsecured Wi-Fi networks and marked them with chalk using special symbols. Sniffing is catching on in other parts of Europe, as well as in New York and Brazil, spread by a small but globally connected community of practitioners. "It's actually a really relaxing thing to do on a Sunday," says Joao Wilbert, a master's student in interactive media, who slowly paces the streets in London like a treasure hunter, carefully watching a tiny handheld monitor for something to flicker onto the screen.

These excursions pick up obscure, random shots from the upper corners of restaurants and hotel lobbies, or of a young couple shopping in a housewares department nearby. Eerily, baby cribs are the most common images. Wireless child monitors work on the same frequency as other surveillance systems, and are almost never encrypted or secured.