Cops get a third digital eye
The giszmos and gadgets from the blockbuster hit Robocop are no longer just a Hollywood fantasy. That’s because Taser International, of Scottsdale, AZ, is currently beta testing a camera it hopes will forever change the way law enforcement officers get their job done.
From GSN Magazine, May 07, 2010
Arizona to shut off highway speed cameras
Arizona's controversial — and widely despised — highway speed cameras are coming down.
The state's Department of Public Safety sent a letter to the cameras' operating company this week, stating that its 2-year contract would not be renewed. The agreement ends July 15, and the cameras will be turned off the next day.
From Los Angeles Times, May 06, 2010
Cleveland gets 1st taste of Ohio's high-tech effort to ease highway commutes
Ohio is going high-tech to ease commuting delays, with cameras, speed and traffic volume sensors and message boards.
The Ohio Department of Transportation calls it the Intelligent Transportation System. It will be paid for with federal stimulus funds and will include 19 cameras and 13 electronic message boards.
From Fox8 News/Associated Press, May 06, 2010
Texas to be U.S. transportation testing ground
Texas is about to become IBM's test subject for a series of telematics transportation technologies with the blessing the U.S. Department of Transportation.
IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano plans to announce the news in Houston on Wednesday at the 20th annual meeting of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITSA 2010), along with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Texas Transportation Institute Director Dennis Christiansen. The partnership between IBM and Texas will closely follow the federal intelligent transportation research agenda put forth by Secretary LaHood and the Obama administration.
From CNET, May 05, 2010
Times Square bombing attempt reveals limits of video surveillance
With 82 city-owned surveillance cameras and scores of private ones, New York's Times Square may well be among the most scrutinized patches of real estate on Earth. So when a bomb-laden Nissan Pathfinder rolled into the famed plaza Saturday evening, it was inevitable that multiple cameras would pick up the sport-utility vehicle as well as the fidgety middle-aged man who was seen standing near the car, stuffing a shirt into a satchel.
From Washington Post, May 04, 2010
NYC foiled terror attack highlights importance of video surveillance
New York City averted yet another possible terrorist attack, but the incident has shed light on the importance of investing in top-of-the-line video surveillance systems for a city that has become terrorism’s number one target destination.
From Government Security News, May 03, 2010
Take two: Water district relies on wireless to secure remote sites
t’s a security practitioner’s biggest fear: Investing a lot of money in a system that doesn’t work. When the Otay Water District, which has 125 square miles of service area and 50,000 customers, first attempted to install a wireless mesh network to some of its remote locations, the system simply didn’t deliver.
From Security Director News, May 03, 2010
Real-Life Police Technology Catches up With Science Fiction
mages of the future of police technology were once only found in movies. James Bond's gadgets left audiences awestruck - and wondering when the tools might be used by their state and local law enforcement offices. The time, it turns out, is now.
From Government Technology, April 29, 2010
Northeast Ohio getting stimulus-funded traffic information cameras
The Ohio Department of Transportation is making use of new traffic cameras to be installed around Greater Cleveland and in Akron/Canton.
Eighty-three cameras will be installed in Greater Cleveland and 64 are going up around Akron and Canton.
They are part of a new information system that will be available to motorists before they depart on www.BuckeyeTraffic.org.
Message boards, vehicle detectors and advisory radio stations are also part of the set-up.
From wkyc.com, April 26, 2010
Secrecy Shrouds NYPD's Anti-Terror Camera System
The New York Police Department is spending $160 million in city and federal funding on a massive surveillance network of video cameras and license plate readers for Lower and Midtown Manhattan. Despite the investment of public funds, NYPD refuses to reveal much of what it will purchase under the plan, how the costs are being shared, how data will be stored or used—or even what broad Homeland Security priorities the high-tech system is supposed to support.
From City Limits, April 26, 2010
