police
NEC Provides Facial Recognition System To South Wales (UK) Police
NEC Corporation (TSE: 6701) announced that it has provided a facial recognition system for South Wales Police in the UK through NEC Europe Ltd. South Wales Police has deployed NeoFace Watch using CCTV cameras mounted on a number of police vehicles and is using its real-time surveillance capability to locate persons of interest on pre-determined watchlists, including criminals, suspects, vulnerable individuals and missing persons.
Spring Hill TN Police Employ Drones For Public Safety
The drone will aid the department in a wide range of uses, such as providing an aerial view of HAZMAT incidents and major traffic crash scenes, which helps with investigation and incident reconstruction; having a bird’s eye view during search and rescue missions, or when searching for missing children; tracking an aggressor during any critical incident, such as one involving the police department’s Special Response Team or during a hostage situation; tracking a suspect on the run; traffic monitoring, such as photographing or videoing an intersection where accidents frequently occur, examining storm water drainage issues, school traffic dynamics, roadway construction projects, traffic flow patterns, or any issues that may impact roadway safety.
NYC Bill Would Force NYPD To Tell Details Of Surveillance Tools
Legislation debated Wednesday before the New York City Council would force the NYPD to disclose some details about surveillance technology such as cellphone-tower replicators, X-ray vans, and license-plate readers. The NYPD also would need to adopt what lawmakers say are privacy disclosures similar to those of the Department of Homeland Security and other municipalities. Under the POST Act —short for Public Oversight of Police Technology— the NYPD would need to publicly disclose each item’s current and future “impact and use policies,” seek public feedback, and explain whether court permission is needed for deployment.
Police Say Video Surveillance Helps Solve Crime Spree
With recent statements by Reno (NV) Police, arguments made by those against the usage of video surveillance —such as the ACLU— should start to understand that overall, video surveillance is indeed making an impact on crime. Many times, those arguments go along the lines that video surveillance does not decrease crime, only helps to arrest criminals. However, if the use of video surveillance is helping to capture, arrest, and prosecute criminal offenders, then that is removing criminals from repeating crimes and causing injury. Reno Police say the main reason detectives were able to solve this recently case was the quality and amount of surveillance video provided by victims and adjacent businesses.
PA Senate OKs Bill For More Police Body Cameras
Legislation approved by the Pennsylvania state Senate on Wednesday seeks to clear legal hurdles for police departments to expand their officers’ use of body cameras, and it gives departments the discretion to refuse public requests for copies of audio or video recordings by officers. The bill, which passed 47-1 after brief comments on the Senate floor, would add Pennsylvania to a growing list of states that are setting statewide policy over the collection of audio and video by officers, including from dashboard and body cameras.
Hackers Hit D.C. Police Surveillance Camera Network, City Officials Disclose
Hackers infected 70 percent of storage devices that record data from D.C. police surveillance cameras eight days before President Trump’s inauguration, forcing major citywide reinstallation efforts, according to the police and the city’s technology office. City officials said ransomware left police cameras unable to record between Jan. 12 and Jan. 15.
New England Town Councilor Proposes Drones Watch For Crime; ACLU Objects
A city councilor wants to deploy drones to monitor high-crime neighborhoods and provide an extra measure of security at major community events – an idea that raises privacy concerns with the ACLU of Massachusetts. Brian K. Gomes’ proposal, which is not expected to be heard until next month or possibly January, calls for a meeting between the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety and Neighborhoods and Police Chief Joseph C. Cordeiro to discuss the use of drones. “I think it can be a crime fighter, undercover surveillance in neighborhoods across the city where we have problems,” Gomes said. “It’s another tool for the Police Department to fight crime.”
To Body Cam Or Not To Body Cam – One Police Department’s Question
There is no clear picture whether the Huntington (West Virginia) Police Department can, or even should, invest in body-worn cameras for its officers as circumstances now stand, Chief Joe Ciccarelli said. The potential cost – in purchase, maintenance and storage – could potentially drain hundreds of thousands of dollars from the department, Ciccarelli said, with the do’s and don’t’s still shrouded in a legal gray area.
Testing Body Cameras In St. Paul MN
Minnesota’s complex debate about police body-cameras takes a new turn in St. Paul Wednesday. The City Council will hold a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. to consider the draft policy released last week by the St. Paul Police Department governing use of the cameras that are typically clipped to an officer’s uniform. In a discussion that involves competing interests and tradeoffs, there’s lots to digest as the department prepares, beginning next week, to test two camera systems over 60 days in its Western District.
PA State Senate Bill Allows Police To Deny Requests For Officer Video
Legislation approved by the Pennsylvania state Senate on Wednesday would let police departments across the state refuse public requests for copies of video recordings by officers, unless a court orders the release. The bill sets a sweeping policy to exempt recordings from body cameras and dashboard cameras from public records requests in Pennsylvania.
Why Video Everywhere Is A Boon -And Bane- For Police
Video technology and terrorism have in many ways revolutionized American policing. Since 9/11, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has built up a network of some 8,000 surveillance cameras constantly on watch over its streets, tunnels, and bridges. And this week police were able to glean information from grainy captured images, identify a suspect behind last week’s pressure-cooker terror bombing, Ahmad Khan Rahami, and then capture him quickly within a 48-hour span. But what some might call the brave new world of video surveillance has had its flip side, too. Dashboard camera technology, the growing use of clipped-on body cams, and of course the presence of civilian smartphones – each has become part of a rough-and-ready system of checks and balances between police and civilians, operating now in a fast-evolving landscape in which proliferating digital lenses record more and more encounters on the street.
‘Predictive Policing’ Isn’t In Science Fiction, It’s In Sacramento
Sacramento —like New York, Houston, Miami, St. Louis, and other cities before it— is looking at the next step: the launch in October of a “real-time crime center,” a central location from which officers could monitor all their existing surveillance technologies, PODs included. The idea is that consolidating information about criminal activity —from stalking complaints to potential lone wolf terrorist attacks— would make law enforcement more effective at investigating and perhaps preventing some incidents. The process would also promote accountability and transparency at a time of rising tension between police and the black community, providing evidence of both police and suspect behavior during tense encounters, proponents say.
Why We Must Continue To Turn The Camera On Police
When MIT grad student Steve Mann began wearing a computer and a head-mounted camera every moment of the day in 1981, he wasn’t thinking of Black Lives Matter, racism, or police violence. But Mann, now a professor at the University of Toronto, may have given us the key concept for understanding the role of ubiquitous cameras in documenting police violence against people of color. Thirty-five years ago, Mann began thinking about a future that seems increasingly real—a world in which cameras are ubiquitous and can store and share what they see. Mann believed that his Eyetap system would be helpful in enhancing human capability and memory, allowing complete recall of past events. But he also predicted that it would have powerful social effects as millions of people with connected cameras could collectively hold authorities responsible for their misdeeds.
Thorny Legal Issues Surrounding Body Cameras: From Privacy To Public Access
More and more law enforcement agencies across the country are outfitting their officers with body-worn video cameras and report better policing and public behavior as a result. But Jim Bueermann, president of the Police Foundation, a Washington, D.C. organization that helps improve policing through research and training, said “There’s more we don’t know about the impact of body worn cameras than what we do know.” From privacy, public access, to cost.
Australian City Opens $1.3M Surveillance Center With Facial Recognition Technology
Logan City in South East Queensland, Australia recently opened a $1.3 million CCTV surveillance center that uses facial recognition technology to monitor troublemakers, criminals, and burst water mains, according to a report by The Register. Over the past decade, the program has expanded from nine CCTVs to more than 300. The system operates on the Teleste video management system, which is also being used in Paris and Sweden, as well as in Austria’s national transport and roadways.
Ambarella A12W Reference Design Kit Enables New Generation of Wearable Police and Security Cameras
Ambarella, Inc., a leader in low-power, high-definition and Ultra HD video compression and image‐processing solutions, announced availability of the Ambarella A12W Wearable Security Reference Design Kit (RDK). The A12W RDK enables fast development of a new generation of compact, ultra low-power, body‐worn HD video cameras suitable for police and security applications.
Police Tout Benefits of Surveillance Cameras
High-tech surveillance cameras are going up on street poles in suburban South Jersey communities where they are being used as virtual patrols to stretch police departments. Many have been installed quietly, netting a rash of drug dealers as well as petty criminals. In Riverside, NJ, a blue-collar town of 9,000, the equipment was used in recent years to disband a burglary ring and a Bloods Gang affiliate known as Sex Money Murder.
St. Louis Police Release Footage of Antonio Martin Fatal Shooting
St. Louis County police released footage on Wednesday evening they said shows 18-year-old Antonio Martin pulling a gun on an officer before being shot and killed, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The footage was taken from three different security cameras at the Berkeley, Missouri gas station where Martin encountered the unidentified officer. However, the officer […]
THE CRIME REPORT – Digital ‘Spies:’ No Place to Hide?
If you feel like someone is watching you, you’re probably right. In the latest manifestation of electronic ogling, police in dozens of cities large and small are enlisting citizens and businesses to register the locations of their private security cameras for possible use in crime investigations. Police use mapping technology to match registered cameras to crime scenes, then ask camera owners for access to possible video evidence.
Big Lake Police Select iCrimeFighter Mobile Solution for Evidence Gathering and Management
When Joel Scharf took over as Chief of Police of the Big Lake (Minn.) Police Department, which protects the 11,000 population city between Minneapolis and St. Cloud, he wanted to provide his twelve officers with a way for them to use an iPad to integrate all of its capabilities into a platform in the field that would let the officers only have to carry one item. Everything is done leveraging the powerful tools within smart phones and tablets, along with the resourceful iCrimeFighter mobile app. As a result, officers can very simply and easily capture video, audio, photographs, dictation and notes to document the case while at the scene.