DHS/Police are turning public CCTV cameras into surveillance cameras, Part 1 (Updated)
Thanks to Purdue University and Homeland Security, police can now access public CCTV cameras anywhere.
Purdue researchers have developed a prototype system called 'Visual Analytics for Command, Control and Interoperability Environments' (VACCINE) which allows law enforcement to tap into thousands of CCTV cameras.
This means, police are using CCTV cameras to spy on everyone in parking garages, college campuses, national parks, highways etc., no place is safe from Big Brother!
VACCINE allows police to spy on millions of images of citizens daily
"Although the [CCTV] cameras are not deployed for surveillance purposes, they can be utilized to increase public safety by properly integrating with current surveillance systems" said Yung-Hsiang Lu, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.
"It is a research tool, although public safety and homeland security would be a great application," Lu said. "The system can produce very large amounts of data. CAM2 has thousands of public cameras. If we retrieve one image from each camera every minute, we will get millions of images in a single day."
"We expect the number of network cameras and their coverage to grow substantially in the near future," Lu said.
Updated 7/11:
The public needs to know about the FBI's (VACCINE) cameras in Seattle...
The government claims, “Every FBI pole camera is associated with a particular subject or particular investigation,” and that revealing a camera’s location would have a “devastating impact” on ongoing police work.
The public information lists about nine cameras installed by the FBI (and 20 installed by other law-enforcement agencies) between 2011 and 2015.
...The public is plainly entitled to know far more about the FBI’s use of them, both in general and in particular cases that are no longer sensitive....
VACCINE and the International Chiefs of Police are working together to make spying on everyone a reality.
"The 2014 IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police) Annual Conference will include the presentation of three VACCINE technologies. This event that takes place in Orlando, Florida from October 25th-28th involves more than 10,000 professionals representing all sectors of law enforcement who are looking for new information, products and services to improve their agency operations."
Think about that for a minute, DHS is using 18,000 police departments to spy on millions of Americans.
The Future of Driving in Police State America
image credit: 2BPblogspot
What is VACCINE? VACCINE was established in 2009 and by they're own admission, it's about 'power'.
"Knowledge is power…but for homeland security and public safety personnel swimming in a vast sea of text, audio, and visual data, that knowledge is often heavily obscured."
In other words, spying on everyone indiscriminately is 'power'.
VACCINE used to secretly spy on commuters
According to a VACCINE Sept., 2014 newsletter, the Greater Cleveland Rapid Transit Authority secretly tested VACCINE's eBOLO (“be on the lookout” system) on an unsuspecting public.
By secret, I mean biometric images were taken of commuters without their knowledge and compared to police BOLO's. Fyi, there was no mention of eBOLO being used to spy on commuters in the media or on Cleveland's transit website.
Last month, I warned everyone that DHS/police have installed surveillance cameras with microphones on the NJ Transit.
“The video and audio captured … is utilized by the New Jersey Transit Police Department and is an indispensable investigatory tool for them,” said NJ Transit spokesman Jim Smith.
Privacy advocates in the state called it a "monumental invasion of privacy."
Transit police are also using 'NICE Systems' which uses pictures, videos, social media, license plate readers etc., to identify commuters.
"Nice Systems integrates data from CAD, RMS systems, body camera video, physical evidence like photos and documents, public and private CCTV video, in-car video, interview recordings, citizen tips, 911 audio recordings, gunshot detection systems, automated license plate readers (ALPRs), social media and more."
Police spy on commuters billions of times a year
According to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Americans took 10.8 billion trips on public transportation in 2014...
“In 2014, people took a record 10.8 billion trips on public transportation -- the highest annual ridership number in 58 years,” said Phillip Washington, APTA Chair and CEO & General Manager of the Regional Transportation District in Denver."
What they're really saying is, police are spying on commuters billions of times a year.Unfortunately it doesn't stop there. The DEA has installed surveillance cameras along our highways, with the sole purpose of spying on everyone.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) initiated a massive national license plate reader program a few years ago according to the ACLU.
The DEA has gathered as many as 343 million records in the National License Plate Recognition program, which connects DEA license plate readers with those of other law enforcement agencies around the country.
The program uses cameras installed along major highways to capture the time, location and direction of every vehicle. The cameras can identify drivers and passengers.
“With its jurisdiction and its finances, the federal government is uniquely positioned to create a centralized repository of all drivers’ movements across the country — and the DEA seems to be moving toward doing just that.”
Everywhere you turn, police are installing surveillance cameras with microphones to spy on everyone using that tired old cliché 'it's for public safety'.
'Privacy, CCTV, and school surveillance in the shadow of imagined law'
"Our study examines the deployment of CCTV systems in Israeli schools, which is taking place in the shadow of an ambiguous law. Based on semi-structured interviews, the study portrays a picture of partial isomorphism among schools. We frame the findings within institutional theory, which differentiates between external and internal sources of decision-making. We found that most school principals relied on internal sources that were shaped by practical considerations and their perceptions as to security, privacy, and education. The interviews indicate a new source of organizational decision-making: imagined law. The principals wrongly assumed that there is a law that applies; they filled it with internal sources, did not search for professional guidance, and limited the participants in the discussions."
This is part 1 of a four-part series.