Is Big Brother Really Preventing Crime?
We drove through Bed Stuy and East New York on Saturday on our way to Bracci Fences (more on that later) and noticed, for the first time, some of the NYPD surveillance cameras we’ve been hearing so much about that can pan,tilt and zoom, all the while uploading feeds through the Internet to police HQ….
We drove through Bed Stuy and East New York on Saturday on our way to Bracci Fences (more on that later) and noticed, for the first time, some of the NYPD surveillance cameras we’ve been hearing so much about that can pan,tilt and zoom, all the while uploading feeds through the Internet to police HQ. In particular, there were a ton of them along Utica Avenue, including this one at Lincoln Place. The Times questioned how effective the cameras are as a deterent, and the views were mixed, with the benefits appearing to be mostly psychological. We liked the self-preservation sales pitch from one security consultant: “If I put a camera in my store and the mugger goes to the store next door, that’s a win for me.”
The Camera Never Blinks [NY Times] GMAP
SO anyway, what about Bracci Fences?
02:25 PM, you’re missing the boat. There’s some nice real estate in East New York. So, first we’re gonna make the streets safe. Then, once they’re safe, we’re gonna sell them to white people. The current residents can go someplace where the real estate is less desirable, and everyone can live happily ever after.
CHP – actually such methods (video) can prevent crime because the guy who will mug you tomorrow is the same guy who mugged me today and who may be caught and/or convicted by the evidence such cameras provide.
Not to mention the benefit it may provide the falsely accussed defendant who may be able to exculpate himself by this evidence.
Re sarcasm miss – you are right, I missed it. But then I think that sarcasm doesn’t really work all that well on the internet, nor is it all that funny. I guess it all depends on why people read and post. I try to assume that most people are actually interested in the subject and not just trying to be cute. But hey, that’s just me!
please synopsisize 1984…
anyone feel like crime is going up?
These cameras with facial recognition software could track everyone’s every move. Show me a beat cop, or even a network of beat cops that can do that!
Yeah, the city is so desperate to bring in the jackboots to protect rich people that they’re putting up cameras… in East New York. You know, where all the billionaires live, in fear that the underclass will someday rise up and storm their mansions in righteous anger.
Since when is catching a few petty criminals more important than OUR RIGHTS? Wake up, people!
I add the last part because “quality of life” crimes respond more, it seems to me, to interventions in the lives of the miscreants, and also to community involvement. People need to engage people to change behavior. A beat cop does to have “facially recognition technology” – it is called her brain. She recognizes “Leon” or “Sheila” and knows they are up to know good. She knows when a store is open etc. A video camera is a very expensive scarecrow, while a beat cop is, at best, an attentive farmer. Now as a public defender I realize that cops are often not at their best and may invent observations and arrest people to meet quotas or because they don’t like them.
Recently I engaged a lady of evening asking her to move on. It ended up in a confrontation, and I know why I don’t do it all the time. But if everyone on the block made it clear they know what is going on and don’t like it, it would have an effect. Of course it can be scary to engage personally with people in that way. A block watch is really the way to go, but I am not sure people are ready for it yet.