BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU

EAST ORANGE NJ CREATING VIRTUAL STASI

[This is how the East German secret police, the Stasi created a network
of hundreds of thousands of informants]

KEVIN C. DILWORTH, NEWARK STAR LEDGER - The East Orange Police
Department is getting ready to greatly enlarge its public safety ranks,
with what's being called the Virtual Community Patrol, Police Director
Jose Cordero said yesterday. Soon-to-be-chosen residents will get access
to a Web site that provides panoramic views of their block, allows them
to type in general complaints, pinpoint a problem location, immediately
send that information to police headquarters, and simultaneously
activate hidden police surveillance cameras, Cordero said. With its
potential to include a vast number of crime-fighting community
participants, the Virtual Community Patrol may be the first such project
of its kind in the nation, Cordero said.

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DC MAYOR WANT LOTS MORE SPY CAMS

GARY EMERLING, WASHINGTON TIMES - The mayor's office wants to allow
police officers to use surveillance cameras every day throughout the
District -- not just during special events on the Mall. Deputy Mayor
Edward D. Reiskin plans to propose legislation this month that would
expand the Metropolitan Police Department's network of closed-circuit
cameras. The bill would increase the number of surveillance cameras and
allow police to watch "for regular anti-crime activity" in a pilot
program. . . In 2002, the D.C. Council voted 7-6 to allow the police
department's 19 closed-circuit cameras to be activated only for special
events, such as protests and marches. Those cameras can be used only in
public places, where there is no expectation of privacy. . . London
authorities and businesses operate about 500,000 surveillance cameras,
and the network helped identify the attackers. Meanwhile, Baltimore
police have said their 250 surveillance cameras have cut crime in
problem neighborhoods. Chicago also has served as a model for camera
networks, and cities such as Philadelphia and Scranton, Pa., are
considering starting their own programs.

Critics of surveillance cameras say they are an unnecessary encroachment
on citizens' privacy, and point to a 2002 British Home Office study of
networks in the United Kingdom and the United States that found cameras
have reduced crime "to a small degree." "If such a bill does come
forward, we will work very hard to oppose it," says Stephen Block,
legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of the
National Capital Area. "We think it's misplaced and the cameras provide,
at best, a false sense of security." Marc Rotenberg, executive director
of the District-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, says
significant privacy issues are associated with camera surveillance and
the case has not yet been made that cameras are an effective means of
crime control. "It becomes very intrusive," Mr. Rotenberg says. "Just
like we have, or used to have, laws on wire surveillance, we need to
have laws on video surveillance."

http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060316-123215-3778r