D.C. Neighborhood Association Installing Cameras to Police Its Own Area
- Posted on February 7, 2012 at 10:21am by
Liz Klimas
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View up Wisconsin Ave. in Georgetown.
Residents and businesses in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C., are banding together through their neighborhood association to install surveillance cameras pointed toward public spaces in an effort to deter crime and provide video evidence should criminal activity occur.
The Washington Times reports that the Citizen’s Association of Georgetown will install cameras on private property to capture footage of sidewalks and streets, after a test of the system was completed on one block using three cameras paid for by residents.
Cameras mounted on a building in Georgetown.
But as the group moves forward with this plan, privacy concerns have surfaced among some of its members and advocacy groups, especially as the group figures out protocol for when footage will be viewed and by whom.
The Times has more:
A new wave of public-private surveillance partnerships, such as the one in Georgetown, has also caught the attention of civil liberties groups who caution that the original intention of a camera system is not the only way it can end up being used.
“Once the camera is there it’s very tempting to say ‘Let’s look at it for other reasons,’ ” said Arthur Spitzer, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of the Nation’s Capital.
As an example, Mr. Spitzer said, a divorce lawyer might try to subpoena surveillance footage that could show evidence of a spouse’s affair by recording the person’s travels through the neighborhood.
“Once something exists, it can often be hard to protect it from being used in other ways,” he said.
Watch this local ABC News report on the surveillance project:
The Times points out that a similar camera surveillance technique was instituted by the District’s police department in 2006 in several neighborhoods to fight crime. As a public entity, several regulations were put in place to protect privacy and provide transparency to those in the areas where the 83 cameras were installed. The Citizens Association of Georgetown is not necessarily subject to these regulations, and Sharon Bradford Franklin with the D.C.-based Constitution Project is reported as cautioning this action:
“When you have such routine and regularized recording by a private group that is not covered by those regulations, it raises concerns,” she said. “They could be subject to various abuses through ignorance of the kind of concerns they should have.”
(Related: DHS looks for feedback on potentially massive surveillance project … on U.S. soil)
Example of a camera installed on a Georgetown building.
While part of the onus for installing the cameras is a 14 percent increase in property crime among Georgetown homes, will it actually be effective at reducing crime? The Times reports that in the association’s test using surveillance cameras in the Georgetown area, Edward Dent, who kept the footage locked in his home and provided it to police when residents reported a crime, said they had six subjects apprehended and three convictions within the two-year period.
On the other hand, John Verdi from the Electronic Privacy Information Center is reported as saying cameras like this are ineffective at reducing crime. A four-year study of the cameras installed by the Metropolitan Police Department also found that crime was not significantly reduced. But this could be the reason why:
Both the low number of cameras in the District as well as the fact they were not monitored live contributed to their ineffectiveness, the 2011 study by the Urban Institute concluded.
“If the cameras are not going to be live-monitored, there are even further questions about efficacy,” Mr. Verdi said of the Georgetown plan. “Folks end up spending a lot of money on the technology … but the benefits are marginal at best.”
In Chicago and Baltimore — where camera systems are much larger and live-monitored — the Urban Institute study found that crime did tend to decrease in neighborhoods under surveillance.
The Times reports that the cameras will cost the association more than $2,000 each. Reports vary on the amount of cameras that will be installed from 10 to three dozen. WJLA reports that cameras will be installed between the next six to eight months.
The cameras installed by the Metropolitan Police Department and those planned by the Georgetown neighborhood association are separate from those installed on police vehicles. Last year, we reported about the extensive fleet of cop cars with mounted license plate-reading cameras.
(Related: Civilian‘s drone busts plant dumping ’huge stream of blood’ into Texas river)
The Metropolitan Police Department supports the neighborhood association’s action in installing its own surveillance cameras.
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lionshield
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 9:45pmcrimials will still be crimials with or without the cameras ! it will not stop crime ! it will only report it!
Report Post »calonzap
Posted on February 8, 2012 at 11:54am…..and once the crime is reported, chances are good that the criminal can be apprehended and punished.
Report Post »LIBS-ARE-DINGLEHEADS
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 6:01pmHook up some automatic machine gun turrets that are set to go off if someone approaches and gets within 50 feet. Test them out in broad daylight to show the neighbors. Blast away and let smoke pour from the barrels. Shoot some watermelons up – juice flyin everywhere!
Problem solved.
Report Post »girlnurse
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 4:46pmCome out to Kahlifornia….cameras EVERYWHERE!
Report Post »Artisan
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 4:13pmWhen will they learn that an armed society is a polite society. No Gun Free Zones! A sign hanging up that says “Gun Free Zone” might as well say ” Nobody here is armed so all armed criminals are safe.”
Report Post »afhveteran
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 3:39pm…and the punks in DC who want to take the last semi-civilized neighborhood will simply walk down the streets with a can of black spray paint and spray the cameras. Screw the cameras…there’s something to be said for good, well-armed citizens.
Report Post »tharpdevenport
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 3:33pmMove over Big Brother, say hello to Big Neighbor!
Report Post »meeester
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 2:52pmIf the video shows crime committed by white people they will be required everywhere by the gubbamint.
Report Post »zyklonb5968
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 2:02pmIf any metropolitan area in the U.S. is in need of surveillance cameras, undoubtedly Washington D.C. is the place…the most lawless city in the nation from one end to the other.
Report Post »ozchambers
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 2:54pmLet’s put them in the Senators offices.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 12:38pmPolice do not prevent crime, they investivate it after the fact… Armed citizens prevent crime !!!
Report Post »Sirfoldallot
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 2:27pmYeah, soon we can protect ourself with plastic squirt guns.
Report Post »DrFrost
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 11:49amYou know the police are going to get this video whenever they want it. That’s my only issue with it. In principle people have the right to monitor their own property… and some reasonable distance beyond that.
Report Post »Smokey_Bojangles
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 11:43amSilly Communist. After a few of these “Concerned Citizens” wind up on youtube hooking up with a prostitute,making a drug deal,or cheatin‘ on the Baby’s momma the Big Brother Cameras will come down.
Report Post »mils
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 11:52amyeah…“concerned ”citizens have our country in the nasty mess it is in today.
Report Post »Heck, we don’t want anyone trying to fight crime o their home turf…it might be against the perpetrators civil rights..
darned where is madlyn o’hair/hare when she’s needed by the left wing???? oh right..no left..okay..
TSUNAMI-22
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 11:40amThe next thing will be a big white balloon that swallows people up roaming the perimeter of any escapees.
What was the name of that TV show?
Report Post »TSUNAMI-22
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 11:49amThe Prisoner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Ffr1U7KMY&feature=related
Report Post »rafa2design
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 11:24amI sometimes wonder why all computers built within the last few years come with cameras already installed. How hard would it be to hack and monitor millions?
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 11:33amA little piece of duct tape over the camera will fix that.
Report Post »Ajax_W_R
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 2:02pm@Kickinback – priceless comment. I love it!
Report Post »GhostOfJefferson
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 10:59amThere are cameras blanketing D.C., there is rampant anti-liberty gun prohibition, and government agents are everywhere watching every move you make. And these folks have a crime problem to the point that they have to cover the remaining 100 square yards of camera free area with camers? How? I thought constant surveillance and gun prohibition stopped crime?
Idiots.
Report Post »Jenny Lind
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 10:56amThis boils down to-we are scared, crime is up, we need to do something. This is a scarey world and getting worse. What is the answer? Hard to pick “one size fits all”, but I get the fear. The whole country with perhaps the exception of “the good old boys”, “rednecks” and ex-military-who are never really “ex”, are scared and unprepared. They are really floundering, I almost feel sorry for them, they were not paying attention, now they are trying to figure out ways to cope-fast. The “ex” military in our family is taking stock and oiling their “protections”. Funny how those with guns are less afraid. isnt it?
Report Post »Mateytwo Barreett
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 10:50amThe cameras cost $2K, circuit intergration another $3K monitoring and recording $1k/ week.
Report Post »Effectiveness about equal to a 15yr old with a cell phone!
lukerw
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 10:58amLOL… has the ring of Truth!
Report Post »Sirfoldallot
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 10:59amYeah & kids will distroy them , lmao.
Report Post »Chromo200
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 10:41amBig deal, the criminals will get off. The courts are clogged with cases, the criminals are not afraid of the general population. Cameras are only good if the criminals know that there is harsh punishment for the offense. And with Eric Holder in the DOJ he will prosecute you if you are middle class, Christian, and conservative.
Report Post »moreteaplease
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 11:24amI think there will be harsh punishment but it will come from the citizens. The justice department is nothing but a mockery with EH at the helm.
I myself am applying for a CC permit.
Report Post »jungle J
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 10:26amthey will soon be availble at a local ghetto pawn shop…..wonder who commits the crime there?
Report Post »smithclar3nc3
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 11:33amWell we know the corrupt politician in the capital are responsible for the largest theft in U.S hISTORY.
Report Post »smithclar3nc3
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 12:51pmAnd they did it with million and millions watching
Report Post »cessna152
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 10:24amYou would not have this problem if you did not fully support progressivism. Also, pass a “shall carry” law and problem solved.
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