CCTV

Rio police leave victim to die, free killers

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:51:48 +0100

A 42-year-old was beaten up and shot by two robbers last Sunday in downtown Rio de Janeiro. CCTV footage which emerged on Tuesday shows that the charity worker was still alive when two police officers passed by. But instead of stopping to help, they let go his killers and drove away.

Evandro Joao da Silva died from a bullet wound to the abdomen on 18 October. When the CCTV footage of his murder emerged a few days later, the police were forced to admit that they thought he was a beggar. So far, only one of the two attackers has been arrested.

According to the autopsy, Evandro died around ten minutes after he was shot. However, a colleague of the victim who rushed to the scene says that he was still breathing some 50 minutes after the attack.

Make money watching CCTV

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:24:39 +0200

Big Brother is gaining ground in the UK, where citizens are being invited to watch CCTV footage in a "stop thief" type of online game. And it's not only for fun - if they catch a criminal red-handed, they could earn 1,000 pounds.

Internet Eyes invites Web users to help fight crime. Shopkeepers and businesses involved in the project are asked to send their CCTV recordings, live, to the site. The would-be-crime-busting observers then scrutinise the pictures for any suspicious behaviour. If they spot something they think looks dodgy, an alert is sent to the property owner by text message. The company advertises that one can earn up to 1,000 pounds a month, although how many criminals you have to catch to do that remains unexplained.

There are around 4.2 million surveillance cameras in the UK, one for every 14 residents. On average, each Brit is filmed 300 times a day. But this new initiative, planned to launch in November, will no doubt raise concerns over individuals' freedom.

Naming and shaming shoplifters with CCTV footage – legal?

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:20:30 +0200

In an attempt to crack down on shoplifters, a UK storeowner has begun posting CCTV images of suspected thieves on the company's website, along with the incentive of a 500 pound (€580) reward for those who successfully identify thieves. On Saturday, the scheme claimed its first victim. But is it legal?

Early last month directors at Home Bargains discount shopping chain, which operates 190 stores in the United Kingdom, gave instructions to their managers to begin sticking up posters in shop fronts, displaying CCTV images of suspected shoplifters. A few weeks later, an online version of the anti-theft campaign was launched. A page entitled "Crimebusters" was added to the company's website, and eight purported thieves were named and shamed. Just three weeks after the launch, and one of them, whose image has since been removed, was arrested at the weekend.

Home Bargains, which raked in £384m (€446m) in annual revenues last year, says that six million (€6.9m), or the equivalent of 1.5% of revenue, is lost to shoplifting. Operations director Joe Morris says that the new scheme is the store's only way of countering the problem. He assures that the police are aware of and cooperating with the work, and that your mugshot will only go up on the site if the company is "very confident" that you stole from them.

Watch yourself... Google's watching you

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:02:00 +0200

This scantily-dressed Londoner is the latest victim of unwanted fame that Google Street View can bring you as you go about your daily business. The image has reignited the debate over the legitimacy of Street View - a topic we looked at in December.

The image, taken at 108 Queensway, Paddington, England, United Kingdom, has already received 5982 diggs, provoking comments like "Google, always keeping abreast of new technology" and "Google Baps". Google Street View has not been well received in the UK, with concerns over privacy rights leading to various incidents (one Street View car was blocked from entering a village, another was attacked by local residents).

Our Observers looked at this subject a few months ago. Here's the post:

Beware of tripping over, sunbathing topless, cheating on your partner in public... - if there's a Google van passing by, the evidence will be forever set in a 360-degree photographic panorama and posted online for all to see.

Google's ever-increasing mapping applications are getting ever-increasingly closer to our personal lives. Suspicious minds won't need to bother with private detectives - they can simply log on to Google Maps and access the pedestrian-level view of the entire city - if they're lucky enough to live in Milan, Paris, or the majority of the US, New Zealand, Australia or Japan... Otherwise, not long to wait: Google Street View is soon to arrive in the UK and looks set to pan the entire world.

So far the application has been received warmly, and perceived as a meeting, directions and house hunting tool. There are even activities like scavenger hunts set up for those who find Street View more aesthetically-pleasing than real life. However, as the data collector travels further afield and more "Street View Tourists" find themselves online - not necessarily doing something they're proud of - Google has found itself under fire for privacy concerns. In Japan, a group of lawyers have set themselves up under the name "The Campaign Against Surveillance Society", just weeks after the application was rolled out there. And in the UK, there's already an anti Street View project going, before the programme has even been launched.

Met police tell Britons: look in rubbish bins for terrorism

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:31:15 +0100

In March 2008 British police shocked Londoners by asking them to report "odd-looking" photographers and houses with "unusual activity". Despite massive criticism for infringing on civil liberties last time, the Metropolitan Police is now going further, asking residents to rummage through wheelie bins and report anyone who dares glance at a CCTV camera.

Watch the Mexican border 24/7 from home

Ségolène Team Observers — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:35:58 +0100

Four "strategic crossing points" that you can watch 24/7 on Blue Servo from home.

A group of crime-busting Texan sheriffs has launched an online surveillance system that makes it possible for the public to watch the Mexican border on CCTV 24 hours a day. Since its launch last Thursday... nothing has happened. So what's the point?

It's taken two years to get funding for the advanced neighbourhood watch scheme, resulting in a public-private partnership with an until now unheard of company called BlueServo and a generous $2m donation from the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry. When a beady-eyed visitor spots something untoward, an alert is sent to The Texas Border Sheriff Coalition, who then decides whether to take action. The TBSC says that the scheme is in place to fight drug trafficking and crime on the border. And apart from a few murmurs of disagreement from the League of United Latin American Citizens, nobody seems to mind the implementation of the Texas Virtual Border Watch Program.

To be able to access images from the 12 cameras, you merely have to sign yourself up to the website. Once logged in, you can then alert the authorities to any activity you deem suspicious. Suspicious?! Not in the US apparently, where everyone seems to find the idea reasonably normal...

The vending machine that fights crime

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:28:57 +0200

A new generation of vending machines is out in Japan. Fitted with a direct line to the police and CCTV, the flash machines don't just serve coke, but combat crime at the same time. Not such a good idea, according to one of our Observers in the country.

The Help Vending Machine, introduced on Friday, is the product of a collaboration between Coca-Cola and the Aichi district police. The first model was installed in a park in Toyohashi, a town 250km south of Nagoya, which decided to pilot the hybrid system after a relapse in vandalism since August. As soon as someone approaches the machine, the surveillance camera turns on and starts recording. The distributor is also equipped with a telephone, programmed to automatically call the emergency services number, 110. If someone gets into trouble, they only have to open a window on the front of the machine to call for help.

The police insisted that the device would dissuade potential offenders and push passers-by to condemn suspect activities. But soon after, the machine itself became a victim of vandalism. On October 12th, somebody ripped off the not-so-all-seeing camera and spray painted the message "surveillance society" onto the side of the distributor.

CCTV hacked by video artists

Sophie Team Observers — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:37:31 +0200

Along with the explosion of surveillance cameras comes a new type of filmmaker. Using a technique called "video sniffing"; they're pirating CCTV footage from shopping centres and the police to "retake control of their environment".

Video sniffing, or "warspying", was originally a game with the goal of getting hold of CCTV footage. With the help of a 2.4GHz receiver (which you can get on eBay) and an old camera, video sniffers can receive the images recorded by small shops and offices, and even the police. Once they know where the surveillance cameras are, they can put on a performance in view of them and retrieve the footage without spending an extra penny. The money-saving technique has become increasingly popular in the past few years and is now appearing in exhibitions and actual films.

A damning video for a Brooklyn hospital

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:11:07 +0200

This CCTV video, taken in the psychiatric ward of a Brooklyn hospital on 19 June, has caused outrage in the US. The footage shows a woman collapsed on the floor while staff apparently choose to ignore her. When help is finally called after an hour, the woman is already dead.

Jamaican-born Esmin Elizabeth Green was admitted to Kings County Hospital after suffering a nervous breakdown. The 49-year-old social worker was administered tranquilizers and had been sitting in the waiting room for 24 hours when she fell to the ground at 5:30 am. None of the patients nearby reacted. A security guard approached her, but then walked away. Almost an hour later, medical personnel came to her assistance. But they were too late.

The medical report that logged Green's death shows that staff reported that she was "sitting quietly in [the] waiting room" until 6:20 am when they noticed she had passed away and immediately tried to help her. Unfortunately for them, the CCTV footage proves quite the opposite. The video was released by the New York Civil Liberty Union, who had filed a case against the hospital for filthy conditions and the abuse of sedatives about a year earlier. The lawsuit would likely have been left at the bottom of a pile, but might be taken more seriously now.

Does France really need CCTV?

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:53:47 +0200

One of grafitti artist Banksy's illustrated jabs at the CCTV system in Marble Arch, London. Photo: "improbulus" on Flickr.

Video surveillance cameras go relatively unnoticed in London, despite it being the most surveyed city in the world. In France however, where plans to increase their numbers by threefold have just been announced, the extra eye-spies will not go up without a fight.

Following a meeting with the French National Commission of Video Surveillance, the Minister of the Interior confirmed plans to advance a "citizen protection model for France". Announcing an increase from 20,000 cameras to 60,000 by the end of 2010, Michelle Alliot-Marie has caused outrage, with critics rallying against what they call a "useless" scheme that comes with a "phenomenal" cost.