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Will Everything Stay in New Orleans If Cameras Capture It All?

36 points| adventured | 8 years ago |nytimes.com | reply

45 comments

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[+] athenot|8 years ago|reply
Two points that always put a dent on "surveillance in the name of safety"

1. Make all the camera feeds accessible to the public. Afterall, shouldn't more eyes help a place be safe?

2. Install cameras around Police HQs. Don't they want to be safe too?

Of course those who advocate surveillance in the same of safety are also the first ones to ensure they are never on camera themselves...

[+] techsupporter|8 years ago|reply
> 2. Install cameras around Police HQs. Don't they want to be safe too?

This is one of the things that makes me laugh with annoyance at the signs at, say, Customs and Immigration when entering the U.S., or at the entrances to courthouses, or (formerly) around airport screening areas. "No pictures or video are permitted. Cell phone use prohibited."

What, precisely, is going on that shouldn't be photographed? If one camera in the ceiling is good, aren't 931 cameras all that much better?

As always, the safety of the enterprise is paramount.

[+] ItsDeathball|8 years ago|reply
The article actually mentions that the video surveillance center monitoring these cameras will, itself, be under video surveillance. Though it doesn't say from where, or by whom.
[+] mywittyname|8 years ago|reply
> Kelby Reed, who lives in the city’s Ninth Ward, said he favored expanding the presence of security cameras in New Orleans to deter crime.

This isn't about deterring crime, it's about catching criminals. Which is not the same thing. I wish departments would be more upfront about this.

There's no statistical link between cameras and crime prevention [1].

[1]https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/study-question...

[+] ivanhoe|8 years ago|reply
Robberies at British banks have fallen by over 90% in last 2 decades and one of the reasons quoted are CCTVs. Of course, cameras by themselves are not enough, they can only be a part of the solution, together with the police and community efforts.
[+] Chathamization|8 years ago|reply
I'm not sure you can say that definitively based on that article. From the article:

> By looking at crime rates within the two complexes and in Manhattan’s 13th Precinct, which encircles them, two researchers said that their statistical calculations showed no persuasive evidence that the installation of cameras reduced the crime rate in Peter Cooper Village from 2002 to 2006. However, there was stronger evidence for a drop in minor crime at Stuyvesant Town.

They're look at whether or not the crime rate within two complexes in Manhattan have gone down after cameras were installed. In on they didn't seem to, and in the other it seems that they might have. This doesn't seem that surprising; it seems it would be far more likely that a criminal would commit a crime in the same city than it is that they would commit a crime in the same building.

[+] paulddraper|8 years ago|reply
> There's no statistical link between cameras and crime prevention

Not saying you're wrong, but if you're right there are an awful lot of pointless security signs outside my neighbor's houses.

[+] Animats|8 years ago|reply
"The broad public safety plan announced last year, which included an early version of the camera plan, discussed taking steps to “reduce the culture of permissiveness” in New Orleans."

That already happened to San Francisco. Coming next, the San Francisco Homeless Tracking System.[1]

[1] http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/SF-s-ambitious-ho...

[+] danso|8 years ago|reply
Mostly OT: Isn't the phrase "What happens in X stays in X" more closely associated with Las Vegas, which must be one of the most heavily surveilled cities in America? https://lasvegassun.com/youre-being-watched/
[+] slededit|8 years ago|reply
I always interpreted the tag line to be more about the social acceptance of what would be considered deviant behavior elsewhere.
[+] briandear|8 years ago|reply
Can we fix the title? It should be "Will 1,500 Street Cameras Be a Wet Blanket in New Orleans?"

The current title makes no sense.

[+] adventured|8 years ago|reply
The NYT changed the title since I posted it, I suspect they agree with your assessment.
[+] geebee|8 years ago|reply
I read accounts of people responding with hostility to google glass (there was a time when it was considered bad etiquette to take someone's picture without asking, and plenty of people feel this way now. I honestly don't really like being recorded). But the technology to embed this in a way that is undetectable will almost certainly be developed before long, and could all be uploaded to the cloud.

Once it's there, I'm pretty sure law enforcement will use various machine learning approaches to process and scan vast amounts of uploaded visual and audio imagery in cloud storage (I believe this already happens on a smaller scale). As for New Orleans? In my opinion, this very likely to happen with or without the cameras.

[+] alant|8 years ago|reply
If it’s done with respect to people’s privacy and able to reduce/deter crime, why not?
[+] jandrese|8 years ago|reply
How can you be sure they will respect privacy? That's the $10,000 question here.
[+] sneak|8 years ago|reply
That’s what they said about dragnet internet surveillance, too.
[+] nickthemagicman|8 years ago|reply
I live and work in New Orleans. I don't live in the best part of town.

Bad stuff happens here like everywhere but I very very rarely fear for my safety.

This is a definite case of 'control/corruption in the name of safety'.

How do we stop it?

[+] peterwwillis|8 years ago|reply
Rich white people tend to ask the question, "How can we stop the crime?"

Poor black people tend to ask the question, "Why do they keep us at the end of our rope?"

And never the twain shall meet.

[+] ozten|8 years ago|reply
Don't worry, only some of the cameras are maintained and operational, if we can trust a 3rd season plot-line from the fictional show Treme.
[+] a3n|8 years ago|reply
Or the reality on BART trains.
[+] sjs382|8 years ago|reply
I can say for certain that a lot of the speeding and red light cameras are definitely in working order.