Seattle Exploring Point-of-View Cameras for Cops
"We have been aggressively exploring new means to assist our officers and improve public safety, and Seattle should consider the feasibility and usefulness of this technology." -- Council member Tim Burgess (pictured) chairman of the Public Safety and Education Committee.
The Seattle City Council is considering a pilot that would test first-person cameras mounted directly on police officers.
From Government Technology, July 12, 2010
Judge tosses suit over Metrolink cameras
A Los Angeles federal judge has thrown out a case challenging Metrolink's right to install cameras to monitor its train engineers.
U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit brought against Metrolink by a union representing locomotive engineers.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen sued in both state and federal court, claiming the commuter rail agency violated employees' rights by placing surveillance cameras in train control cabs.
The state case is still ongoing.
From San Jose Mercury News, June 30, 2010
Pennsylvania Police Departments Connect Wirelessly to School District Camera Feeds to Aid Incident Response
School systems and police departments are community partners, and ensuring student, faculty and officer safety is a high priority for both entities. In Pennsylvania, police departments are being both innovative and proactive by using wireless technology to handle school safety. If there's an emergency, local police departments can increase situational awareness by directly linking to Pennsylvania schools' live video camera feeds.
From Government Technology, June 29, 2010
NJ city leading way in crime-fighting technology
This city of 65,000 has fought one of the nation's highest crime rates in recent years with an arsenal of high-tech gadgets, from gunshot detection systems to software that can sift and analyze crime data almost instantaneously.
The results have been startling: Violent crime in East Orange has fallen by more than two-thirds since 2003, according to state police statistics.
From The Associated Press, June 20, 2010
Border surveillance system upgraded
At first, Jerry and Susie Huffman weren't sure what to make of the 80-foot steel tower facing the St. Clair River.
The St. Clair Shores couple were fishing for perch this week on the river's edge near the foot of the tower, just across from the Algonac State Park's campgrounds, when they realized what loomed above -- an unblinking video eye trained on them and all other activity on the river, 24/7.
"We eventually figured out what it was for," said Susie Huffman, 70, as she reeled in her husband's fishing line.
From The Detroit News, June 19, 2010
Chattanooga: $27 Million Area Intelligent Transportation System Launched
A $27 million project to replace area traffic signals with the latest models and add dynamic message boards to help ease traffic flows, members of the City Council were told.
Volkert and Associates has been chosen to design the system at a cost of $2.5 million.
It will include 377 signalized intersections, 70 traffic surveillance cameras and 70 dynamic message boards.
From The Chattanoogan, June 08, 2010
U.S. military turns to TV for surveillance technology
As it rapidly expands its drone program over Afghanistan, the U.S. military is turning to the technology that powers NFL broadcasts, ESPN and TV news to catalog a flood of information coming from the cameras of its fleet of unmanned aircraft.
U.S. military archives hold 24 million minutes of video collected by Predators and other remotely piloted aircraft that have become an essential tool for commanders. But the library is largely useless because analysts often have no way of knowing exactly what they have, or any way to search for information that is particularly valuable.
From Lois Angeles Times, June 07, 2010
Border Patrol cameras watching St. Clair River
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said testing recently was completed on towers along the river between Michigan and Ontario. The towers, which include 22 cameras, are part of a previously announced surveillance plan.
From The Times Herald, June 03, 2010
DHS to give more money for airport security
Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will provide approximately $78 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding for airport security technology projects designed to both enhance the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) efforts to strengthen security at airports nationwide while stimulating the failing economy by creating jobs for Americans across the country.
From Government Security News, June 03, 2010
Lansing (Michigan): City expands video system without adding its own cameras
A serial killer who committed five homicides in this city in 2007 prompted city officials to install video surveillance in its most crime-ridden neighborhoods. While the killer was caught in the fall of 2007 before the cameras were fully deployed, the city decided to continue with the surveillance project to aid law enforcement in crime investigations, said Jeff Kludy, chief technology administrator for the City of Lansing.
“We deployed 10 cameras in the north end as a pilot test project and let them run for six months and gathered crime stat data,” said Kludy. “We saw a reduction in crime so we expanded the project and decided to move it to the south end of the city as well.”
From Security Director News, June 02, 2010
