RFID, GPS Technology and Electronic Surveillance

School Installs CCTV Cameras in Pupil Toilets

July 22, 2009

London Times - A head teacher has defended using CCTV to monitor the lavatories at his junior school. Len Holman, the head of Angel Road Junior School in Norwich, said that pupils had requested the cameras, which cover the sink area, to protect the newly refurbished toilet blocks from vandalism.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the human rights organisation Liberty, said that the measure would serve only to prepare children for a lifetime of intrusive surveillance.

The cameras were installed at the request of the pupils’ school council, Mr Holman said.

“There were some isolated incidents of vandalism, occurring mainly because pupils of course can’t be monitored by adults in toilet areas. “The pupils saw that there was available space on the security system operating in the school and asked whether TV cameras could be installed to prevent further vandalism.”

Ms Chakrabarti told the BBC’s Today programme on Radio 4 that the state of privacy in Britain had reached a new low “if we now believe that the only way to teach 7 to 11-year-olds to respect property, to behave well, is to put closed-circuit television in the toilets.”

She added: “In other words, to teach them ‘behave well for fear of being caught’ and to prepare them for a lifetime of pretty intrusive surveillance.” It emerged yesterday that a school in South London has installed CCTV in classrooms to avoid disputes between teachers and pupils and to prevent theft. The films will also be used in teacher training.

Stockwell Park High School is being rebuilt and as part of the overhaul a hi-tech surveillance system has been put in place. There are cameras in 28 classrooms as well as corridors and stairwells, and there are 40 more outside. Mike Rush, the deputy head teacher, said that he envisaged the number of cameras doubling when the rest of the building was complete.

Maryland Transit Administration Considers Train, Bus Surveillance

July 20, 2009

Baltimore Sun - The Maryland Transit Administration is considering installing audio surveillance equipment on its buses and trains to record conversations of passengers and employees, according to a letter sent by the MTA's top official to the state Attorney General's Office.

The letter, reported by the Maryland Politics Watch blog, seeks legal guidance on whether installing such equipment would violate Maryland's anti-wiretapping law. In his letter, MTA Administrator Paul J. Wiedefeld notes that the MTA already uses video cameras for security aboard its vehicles.

"As part of MTA's ongoing efforts to deter criminal activity and mitigate other dangerous situations on board its vehicles, Agency management has considered adding audio recording equipment to the video recording technology now in use throughout its fleet," Wiedefeld wrote.

According to the administrator, the MTA staff decided the idea raised legal issues and decided to send a letter seeking an opinion from the attorney general on whether such electronic eavesdropping would be legal and, if so, under which circumstances.

The MTA asked the attorney general to clarify whether the Maryland's Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act would require the MTA to obtain the consent of passengers before recording their conversations. If consent is required, the MTA asked whether posting a sign informing riders they were under audio surveillance would be sufficient notice.

The idea drew a negative reaction from the Sen. Brian E. Frosh, chairman of the Senate Judicial Proceedings, who predicted the policy would almost certainly result in some legislator introducing a bill to prohibit such surveillance.

"Do we really need to stoop that low in order to keep order?" Frosh said. "It's that '1984' question ultimately: Do you want government delving that closely into everybody's personal life to maintain our safety."

A spokeswoman for the MTA did not have an immediate response.

Big Brother Flies into Valley with 'Crime-Fighting' Eyes

July 9, 2009

Antelope Valley Press (Palmdale, California) - In what they say is the first step toward a new era in law enforcement techniques, city officials are testing a small airplane mounting a high-tech surveillance camera to help fight crime.

The aerial surveillance system features high-definition video recording technology that is capable of viewing people or objects several miles away and whose images can later be magnified to identify the individuals, officials said.

"You never know when you are being watched or followed. It would be stupid to commit a crime. You see it with such detail," said Mayor R. Rex Parris, who took a ride last week in a camera-equipped airplane with pilot Dick Rutan. "I have every hope that Lancaster will be the first city to deploy it. I've never been so excited about anything."

Such surveillance technology is used by the military, NASA and a limited number of other federal agencies, but Lancaster would be the first entity in the United States to use it for general public safety, officials said.

Parris asked Rutan, a Mojave Air and Space Port commissioner who is famous for piloting the Voyager aircraft around the world nonstop and unrefueled in 1986, for assistance in developing the concept of placing an "eye in the sky" over Lancaster.

At first, Rutan looked into deploying the camera on an unmanned aircraft to patrol the city's skies, but that proved to be too expensive and faced too many difficulties with Federal Aviation Administration regulations. Using a conventional small plane "solves all kinds of problems," Rutan said. "It's a lot cheaper to have a pilot on board than a drone."

For the first demonstration flight last week, the camera was mounted on a Cessna Caravan, but Rutan is researching smaller general aviation aircraft for the aerial platform. The camera is an example of technology developed for and used by the military making a transition to civilian applications, Rutan said.

"I'm pretty impressed with the quality of the imagery you're able to get, day and night," he said. "I think it would be a terrific tool for law enforcement."

"I'm really excited to be part of it," Rutan said.

During the demonstration flight, the system was used to observe a car accident, a city announcement said. The camera detected the collision due to the heat produced by the vehicles, and within seconds focused on the area and provided a clear picture of all vehicles and people in the area.

The mayor said he can't predict how long it will take to make the "eye in the sky" operational. City officials said in the announcement that the trial flight exceeded their expectations, but called it just the first step in the process.

"This demonstration is a major milestone in a project that will improve the quality of life in the Antelope Valley," City Manager Mark Bozigian said in the announcement. "To put it simply, it works. The next step is to make it operational, which includes financial considerations."

California City May Install License Plate Cameras

July 11, 2009

San Francisco Chronicle - Welcome to Tiburon... Click... Your presence has been noted.

The posh and picturesque town that juts into San Francisco Bay is poised to do something unprecedented: use cameras to record the license plate number of every vehicle that crosses city limits.

Some residents describe the plan as a commonsense way to thwart thieves, most of whom come from out of town. Others see an electronic border gate and worry that the project will only reinforce Tiburon’s image of exclusivity and snootiness.

“I personally don’t see too much harm in it, because I have nothing to hide,” commodities broker Paul Lambert, 64, said after a trip to Boardwalk Market in downtown Tiburon on a recent afternoon.

“Yet,” he said, “it still has the taint of Big Brother.”

Japanese Workers Have Daily Smile Scans

July 6, 2009

Telegraph - Japanese railway workers face enforced "smile scans" every morning in a bid to boost their customer services, it has been claimed. More than 500 staff at Keihin Electric Express Railway are expected to be subjected to daily face scans by "smile police" bosses.

The "smile scan" software, developed by the Japanese company Omron, produces a sweeping analysis of a smile based on facial characteristics, from lip curves and eye movements to wrinkles.

For those with a below-par grin, one of an array of smile-boosting messages will pop up on the computer screen ranging from "you still look too serious" to "lift up your mouth corners," according to the Mainichi Daily News.

A growing number of service industries are reportedly using the new Omron Smile Scan system for "smile training" among its staff.

Workers at Keihin Electric Express Railway will receive a printout of their daily smile, which they will be expected to keep with then throughout the day to inspire them to smile at all times, the report added.