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BPD surveillance network expands for Marathon, but will stay in place after
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Comments
Shameful
Shameful how this is an acceptable response. These cameras do nothing to actively thwart any kind of attack; the marathon bombing is simply being used by the City of Boston and the BPD to increase surveillance. Disgraceful by all involved.
Another Perspective
http://commonwealthmagazine.org/criminal-justice/big-brother-is-watching/
Dorchester
I'm not referring to surveilling in Dorchester or youths in Dorchester. Dorchester's problems are very different from a terrorist attack during a widely publicised national event; surveillance may be exactly what is needed in Dorchester (I really don't know), but their problems are very different so a blanket answer for both situations is most likely not the correct one. The powers that be are simply using the marathon bombing as a convenient excuse to put up cameras wherever they see fit. It has nothing to do with "increasing public safety" or whatever else excuse they drum up. Never let a good crisis go to waste.
these cameras can be useful.....
Although I guess the is potential for some government agent sitting in front of a bunch of monitors watching and snooping on American citizens, that isn't what happens with these cameras. You can't really tell who is who on these things, unless you have specific knowledge about a specific person or car. You cant see license plates, (not from the current ones anyway), and can barely make out the gender of people walking by.
These cameras all depend on the policy that regulates them.
How are they useful?
If you can't tell what is going on, or who, and you have someone monitoring several at once ... what, exactly, can they do about anything?
Depends....
We'll they do capture crimes in progress every once in a while, and if you can get a specific description like an artice of clothing, with some follow up you can find out the identity of that person. They capture a lot of car crashes, including ones with city vehicles. One time we had a cop who lied about where he was going and at what time, and the cameras helped pin him in a lie. Sometimes the transportation dept. uses them for traffic studies. For major events, you can use the cameras for deployment of resources for large crowds.
There are tons of uses for these cameras. Can they be abused? Sure. But the spying issue is taken a little too far.
Would you mind if I put up a
Would you mind if I put up a few cameras near your home and personal property? They aren't very good, you can barely make out peoples gender and I won't be able to see your license plate or anything specific.
Do you have blinds on your house that you ever close? Would you let me take a look through your phone?
The attitude you have is helping perpetuate the problem, there is no reason for these cameras. Having "nothing to hide" does not warrant mass surveillance. When has the government once proven that they will not abuse or take something like this as far as they can?
http://www.wired.com/2013/06/why-i-have-nothing-to-hide-is-the-wrong-way...
We aren't talking about my phone or house.
It also depends on who "you" are. If you were an anonymous internet message board poster named "ninjers", then yea I might be worried. There is also no reason to put cameras where I live, that would be a waste of money. If I lived on Comm. Ave in Boston, yea, I actually would have less of an expectation of privacy (because of the hundreds of other cameras around), so no, I wouldn't mind.
If these cameras were on Boylston St. 2 years ago during the marathon, they wouldn't even have been helpful in solving any of the bombings. That's because the other 20-50 cameras on private businesses already show more than these traffic cameras ever would. And you don't have any control over the footage from these cameras. Hell, in 10 years or so companies like Google and Bank of America will probably have 24/7 access to these cameras and you won't have a say at all in what they record and/or what happens to the footage.
My attitude is just realistic, your attitude is paranoia.
I'm conflicted
On the one hand, it feels kind of creepy to think that the police may be watching me whenever I am out in public.
On the other hand, I'm out in public, and anyone, including the police can watch me whenever I am. I don't have any right to expect that no one will look at me.
WRT the current topic and the Dorchester Youth, are any of the cameras being set up for Marathon security being put in Dorchester? If they're only going on the Marathon route near the finish, isn't that area already saturated by business-owned surveillance, as mentioned above?
I don't think cameras diminish crime
I don't think cameras diminish crime, not at the moment of surveillance or even subsequent acts.
I think they do provide video evidence useful in prosecuting crime.
As we saw with Tsarnaev, they weren't apprehended at the scene, nor were they apprehended before they took Officer Collier's life. They were apprehended right after they murdered Officer Collier and car-jacked that guy's sweet ride with plans to blow up people in NYC.
No doubt, Increasing video surveillance along the Boston Marathon route could aid in apprehension and prosecution of a act of violence. I don't see how it could used to initiate an intervention to stop a crime.
Practically every night on the news we see video from a bank or a convenience store of a robber. The video doesn't stop the crime, it provides evidence that helps law enforcement collect information that leads to apprehending the suspect and evidence for the prosecution.
Are You Serious?
There is a direct link between cameras and crime solvability. If you think terrorist bombings are the only crimes that happen in boston then that ivory tower you're in must be even higher than I figured.
Anon
Where did I ever say bombings are the only crimes in Boston? Nice strawman. CCTVs provide negligible benefit (a detriment in some cases) to the average citizen. And I think it would be fair to say you are the type of person who is willing to give up your civil liberties in place of temporary security, correct?
Well said!
Pull some research from the UK where CC Television has been used by police for public surveillance for decades. Crime statistics are completely unchanged. Let's just keep throwing our privacy away though. We've already convinced an entire generation of young people that it's OK to do so.
Huh
When did they move Fenway Park to Kendall Square?
After the Olympics
Will the rooftop sniper teams and security gates between neighborhoods remain, as well?
Maybe, but billions in debt
Maybe, but billions in debt definitely will.
Bring on the Olympics!
n/t
Agreed. This is definitely
Agreed. This is definitely in prep for the Olympics. Remember how the one Olympic director said Boston was a good candidate because he was impressed how the entire area was able to shut down after the bombing? These cameras will be used as an example to the Olympic committee on how well Bostonians can be controlled and watched.
It's for your own protection!
It's for your own protection! CLUMP! CLUMP! CLUMP!
I for one
welcome our new BPD overlords
Overheard at Logan yesterday
John Hancock has a bunch of nice kids greeting the elite runners as they come in at Logan. As one of the kids was standing with his sign that just read "John Hancock" a hedge funder walked by him and said "I think he's dead".
To which the kid replied, "You mean like Democracy?".
Also overheard, an business agent for one of the elite runners telling another guy,
"Financially, the bombing was the best thing to happen to this Marathon".
wow
Tasteless...
plus
infinity plus one
I dunno, Someone could also
I dunno, Someone could also point out that financially 9/11 was the best thing to happen to Halliburton, and nobody would bat an eye.
Not really. They lost money
Not really. They lost money and took a major reputation hit for the Iraq fiasco.
I hadn't thought about..
I hadn't thought about the Haliburton subsidiary's death by shower electrocution scandal for a while. Haliburton made a killing on no bid contracts. The USA was building infrastructure all over Iraq including a national health care system. It's written into their Constitution.
Then there were the pallets of cash that disappeared
Is it unreasonable to think that most, if not all of those millions of dollars wound up at Halliburton?
billions vanished like a fart in the wind
Reasonable or not, I don't see any evidence of that in this audit report article but it makes clear Halliburton and KBR were ripping off Iraq and the US government in Iraq. In addition to having evidence, billions were disbursed from the pallets without record.
lrb.co.uk:
Where has all the money gone? Ed Harriman follows the auditors into Iraq
Frozen Four, again
I understand that college hockey is a niche sport, and has a fraction of the significance of the Marathon, both on local interest, and on the local economy, but at a brunch for long-time attendees of the Frozen Four, one consistent complaint was that there was no mention of the Frozen Four, or banners, at Logan. I understand why, but I guess the good burghers of North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin would also like to be welcomed as they get off the plane, like in other cities.
Overwealmed by the Marathon, my guess
You know there's been griping about how Boston hasn't been getting the event as much as it should, considering it's place in the college hockey world compared to, say, St, Louis and Tampa. There's no way they could play the final on Saturday with the marathon on Monday, so they years they could even think of hosting in Boston are limited. Boston could be hockey focused in February or March, but not in April.
But still, I am sure Boston did better than, say, Cincinnati, with a venue far superior to Ford Field.
As for myself, I'm looking forward to St. Paul in 2017. Nope, that wasn't a typo.
Surveillance cameras are here
Surveillance cameras are here to stay. The city, businesses, homeowners, and car owners are all installing more cameras with more features.
The unanswered question is how long will the city retain video, and who will have access to it and not have access to it.
cameras
Some of the people that are against these cameras are the same ones commenting on the trooper secret recording and they have no problem with that. I don't have a problem with recording the police as long as its done up front. The door has been opened and who knows what's coming through.