Police want residents to install police-run surveillance cameras in their homes

Project Nola's slogan: "Be Informed. Get Involved." In other words Police WILL be spying on your homes & Big Brother wants YOU to pay for letting them spy in your HOME!
Police in Louisiana are urging residents to add surveillance camera security systems to their homes and then to hand over control of those systems to law enforcement, an effort they claim will help make neighborhoods safer.
Surveillance camera footage is being used more and more by law enforcement agencies to help solve crimes. Now, officials in St. Bernard Parish hope residents there will take part in a new program, that will hopefully yield the same results.
The St. Bernard Sheriff's Office wants people like Delosryes and others to reconsider. Sheriff Jimmy Pohlmann says, "I think the more cameras out there, the more successful the program will be."
A $10 monthly fee is required for residents interested in granting police access to their existing home camera systems, but those who don’t yet have cameras can purchase entire kits from the officer’s business for $295. For another $150, you can also get those cameras professionally installed.
Started by former New Orleans police officer Bryan Lagarde, who now owns a digital surveillance wholesale company, Project NOLA is reportedly “the largest networked HD city-wide crime camera system in America,” according to their website, and currently has access to more than 1,000 cameras around New Orleans.
Pohlmann says as opposed to detectives going door to door to find surveillance footage after a crime has occurred, it'll be a huge advantage to have footage at his detectives fingertips immediately. "All you have to do is, you can go to a map and click on an icon for that camera in that area and pull up that camera and it'll give us a live feed from that area," explained Pohlmann.
“This is great for NOPD,” writes Jules Bentley for AntiGravity Magazine, “firstly because they don’t have to pay for any of this—the costs are borne by the home or business owner and the increasingly grant-funded Project NOLA nonprofit—and secondly because private cameras can do things the government’s not allowed to.” Like shirk pesky privacy or constitutional issues.
A network consultant also told Bentley that increasing the number of surveillance devices could compromise NOLA’s intended mission.
“With increasing transmission and storage of data come increasing risks to the security and soundness of the data and the network on which it travels… The larger and more complex a storage and transmission service is, the more points of vulnerability are multiplied—as well as the cost and personnel needs,” the consultant said.
When asked if people’s home cameras could also be vulnerable to hacking, the consultant told Bentley, “That’s not a subject I’m comfortable getting specific about… Let’s just say any system is only as smart as its administrators. I’d say the intended functionality, Lagarde surrounded by monitors like Batman in The Dark Knight, is already weird enough.”
There’s also the fact that footage shot by homeowners’ cameras would be subject to Lagarde’s discretion. “Legally binding assurances of due process, security, and accountability: Project NOLA has none of these in place,” writes Bentley. “All the data from all the Project NOLA cameras and all decisions about who sees what rest entirely in the hands of Lagarde.”
One resident told WAFB he sees how the cameras could help police “keep law and order,” but he also raised concerns over the Big Brother-style intrusion and questioned whether police could possibly misuse their new powers.
“I’m all for it if it’s all for the good, but things do get abused,” said Mereaux resident Christian Delosryes.
Sheriff Pohlmann pledged, however, that police would never look at footage unless they needed to.
“We’re not gonna sit there and monitor it unless something happens in that area or we have reports of suspicious activity going on in that area,” Pohlmann said.
A surveillance camera system in the hands of a former police officer who operates with minimal accountability and who reports directly to law enforcement agencies should give New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish residents cause for concern.
This is the latest expansion for ProjectNola. Right now, more than one thousand locations across New Orleans have cameras tied in to the system and even areas on the west bank like Westwego have cameras monitored by the group. Pohlmann has high hopes for the program in St. Bernard and strongly urges residents to sign up, and help his deputies keep the parish safe.
Residents who are interested can purchase their own surveillance cameras and have them installed before tying in to the ProjectNola system or they can buy cameras from ProjectNola directly.
http://www.wafb.com/story/26645496/st-bernard-sheriff-hopes-residents-embrace-project-nola
http://www.fox8live.com/story/26497489/project-nola-expands-to-westwego
http://www.antigravitymagazine.com/2014/01/watch-me-do-my-thing-surveillance-in-new-orleans/