-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Phantom Truth] US doles out millions for street
cameras
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 03:36:18 -0000
From: nighteyes1991
Reply-To: phantomtruth@yahoogroups.com
To: phantomtruth@yahoogroups.com
The Department of Homeland Security is funneling millions of
dollars
to local governments nationwide for purchasing high-tech video
camera
networks, accelerating the rise of a "surveillance society" in
which
the sense of freedom that stems from being anonymous in public
will
be lost, privacy rights advocates warn.
Since 2003, the department has handed out some $23 billion in
federal
grants to local governments for equipment and training to help
combat
terrorism. Most of the money paid for emergency drills and
upgrades
to basic items, from radios to fences. But the department also
has
doled out millions on surveillance cameras, transforming city
streets
and parks into places under constant observation.
The department will not say how much of its taxpayer-funded
grants
have gone to cameras. But a Globe search of local newspapers and
congressional press releases shows that a large number of new
surveillance systems, costing at least tens and probably
hundreds of
millions of dollars, are being simultaneously installed around
the
country as part of homeland security grants.
In the last month, cities that have moved forward on plans for
surveillance networks financed by the Homeland Security
Department
include St. Paul, which got a $1.2 million grant for 60 cameras
for
downtown; Madison, Wis., which is buying a 32-camera network
with a
$388,000 grant; and Pittsburgh, which is adding 83 cameras to
its
downtown with a $2.58 million grant.
Small towns are also getting their share of the federal money
for
surveillance to thwart crime and terrorism.
Recent examples include Liberty, Kan. (population 95), which
accepted
a federal grant to install a $5,000 G2 Sentinel camera in its
park,
and Scottsbluff, Neb. (population 14,000), where police used a
$180,000 Homeland Security Department grant to purchase four
closed-
circuit digital cameras and two monitors, a system originally
designed for Times Square in New York City.
"We certainly wouldn't have been able to purchase this system
without
those funds," police Captain Brian Wasson told the Scottsbluff
Star-
Herald.
Other large cities and small towns have also joined in since
2003.
Federal money is helping New York, Baltimore, and Chicago build
massive surveillance systems that may also link thousands of
privately owned security cameras. Boston has installed about 500
cameras in the MBTA system, funded in part with homeland
security
funds.
Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information
Center, said Homeland Security Department is the primary driver
in
spreading surveillance cameras, making their adoption more
attractive
by offering federal money to city and state leaders.
Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke said that it
is
difficult to say how much money has been spent on surveillance
cameras because many grants awarded to states or cities
contained
money for cameras and other equipment. Knocke defended the
funding of
video networks as a valuable tool for protecting the nation. "We
will
encourage their use in the future," he added.
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff
