"Now we have eyes everywhere"

Br'er Drudge alerts us to "Surveillance targeted to convention":

An unprecedented number of video cameras will be trained on Boston during the Democratic National Convention, with Boston police installing some 30 cameras near the FleetCenter, the Coast Guard using infrared devices and night-vision cameras in the harbor, and dozens of pieces of surveillance equipment mounted on downtown buildings to monitor crowds for terrorists, unruly demonstrators, and ordinary street crime...

An unspecified number of State Police cameras are also being installed, and more than 100 previously existing MBTA cameras will be used to monitor area subway and bus stations. Law enforcement officials will have as-needed access to as many as 900 cameras that have been operated for months or years by the Massachusetts Port Authority, the state Highway Department, and the Big Dig...

Live digital video from the State Police's new high-resolution, helicopter-mounted camera will be sent to the Multi-Agency Command Center, where law enforcement agencies will be coordinating their efforts. Boston, MBTA, and Coast Guard camera feeds will go to the command center. Several RV-sized mobile command vehicles also will tap into portions of the camera network.

On the water, the "hawkeye" technology is a vast improvement over the Coast Guard's old monitoring system, which relied heavily on what its vessels in the water were able to detect, said Andrew Shinn, a Coast Guard spokesman and petty officer. "Now we have eyes everywhere," Shinn said...

The picture is from a real ad campaign by the (London) Metropolitan Police. More on that here.

Privacy · Sun, 07/18/2004 - 18:47 · · Importance: 1