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Compton Police 1 Year into Testing a Powerful Live Aerial Surveillance System

TMCnet Feature

April 16, 2014

Compton Police 1 Year into Testing a Powerful Live Aerial Surveillance System

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By Matt Paulson
TMCnet Contributing Writer

Los Angeles Police Department is currently in the process of testing a controversial wide-area surveillance system in Compton that provides a real-time aerial view of the entire city. The system was invented by retired Air Force veteran Rose McNutt, who describes the product as “a live version of Google (News - Alert) Earth, only with TiVo capabilities.” Persistent Surveillance Systems, McNutt's Ohio-based company that developed the program, uses airplanes mounted with an array of high-resolution cameras that can provide continuous coverage over a 25-square-mile area, for up to six hours at a time.


The comparison of a hybrid between Google Earth and TiVo (News - Alert) is vague, but surprisingly accurate: the video surveillance system not only provides real-time images of all activity (criminal or otherwise) in the area, but also provides officers with the ability to pause, rewind, zoom in and even follow specific individuals and cars. That means that every speeding car, every robbery and virtually all crime can be placed on record and tracked.

Naturally, this is being criticized by many as a massive invasion of privacy. Though the cameras are not precise enough to identify people by their faces or see into homes, all public activity is on record. The fact that this surveillance technology is free of any technological restraints and captures the public without their consent is frightening.

Persistent Surveillance Systems and Police forces that use the system argue that the system is actually far less invasive than other surveillance methods, like those used by the NSA. One officer claims the wide-area surveillance “allows us to provide more security with less loss of privacy than any of the other options that are out there,” citing the inability to track faces and other limitations of the technology. However, it will only be a matter of time before higher resolution cameras and enhanced facial recognition technology makes these invasions of privacy even more powerful and intrusive. In addition, simply saying “we're not as bad as the other guys” does little to ease the mind of concerned citizens.




Edited by Maurice Nagle


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