Real-time surveillance of the police

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In the December '94 issue of Wired, ("Watching the Detectives", p. 141),
Sandy Sanfort describes Bob Fleming's work to make real-time permanent
recordings of the body positions of police officers.

One could place a small sensor on each wrist and ankle, and record the
positions (and velocities) of the cops body to with a _centimeter_,
anywhere in a city.

The advantage for cops is that a fallen officer can be quickly located, and
a cop's claim to have witnessed an event can be corroborated by
demonstrating that he was actually there.

The advantage for society is that the cop's behaviour, such as billy-club
swinging velocity, can be monitored. It could detectgunfire, too, by
measuring the kick that is transmitted down the cop's wrist. This would
work to the extent that the equipment is actually mounted on the cop it
claims to belong to, so some manner of authentication would be needed.

Also discussed is the idea of car or helmet mounted cameras, transmitting
images continuously, to be stored by a neutral third-party, in the event of
a legal challenge, either from the accused claiming that the cop is lying,
or of claims of police brutality.

After the Rodney King incident, I had the notion, (which I did not act on
to actually promote, I'm sorry to say), that organizations representing
people that feel persecuted by the law could issue disposable cameras to
all there members. For example, if a street gang felt the cops were
thumping their members with unwarranted enthusiasm, the gang could purchase
a case of cameras at the local Price Club, and everyone could carry them to
photograph the cops. In addition, cameras could be unobtrusively mounted on
car hoods, perhaps with three or four such cameras multiplexing their
images onto a single videotape (one wants a wide, but not necessarily tall
aspect ratio; three such cameras with fisheye lenses could cover the hole
perimer of a car). The VCR would be in a fireproof safe welded to the car
frame (or use a surplus flight recorder package), so it would take extra
effort for a cop to conceal the evidence of wrongdoing after mistreating
the driver. It would also be handy for assigning responsibility in traffic
accidents.

Yes, that's right - keep surveillance cameras going on _yourself_. If
you're not doing anything illegal, you've got nothing to fear from taping
everything you do.

Of course, after the difficulty the City of Santa Cruz had in establishing
a Police Review commission, and considering that its powers were
eviscerated in light of a lawsuit threat by a police union, I expect that
it will be difficult to convince our Nation's Finest to adopt this new
technology - though I'm sure they'd be happy to apply it to parolees and
those serving on probation. Adoption could be initially achieved, though,
by pointing out to private security firms that their liability could be
reduced by monitoring their employees - obvious slackers could be
immediately fired, troublesome guards could be disciplined, and the firm
could demonstrate in court that the guard was nowhere near the scene when
the plaintiff claimed to have been beaten by a guard. Private security
guards have nowhere near the influence that police unions do, and so would
have little power in arguing against it. Later on, cities faced with
expensive lawsuits could strike a deal with the liability insurance
companies to save money if the city cops use this stuff.

After the DT fiasco, and the mention yesterday of the DOJ's new Big Brother
Database, I thought you'd like to hear that someone's working on giving Big
Bro the stick too. I personally feel that a society that _needed_ to do
this to its cops is an abhorrent society. But perhaps we could strike a
deal with Big Bro - if you don't tap our phones, we won't pass laws to tap
your cops.

Best Wishes in this Holiday Season,

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Michael D. Crawford
crawford@scruznet.com     <- Please note change of address.
crawford@maxwell.ucsc.edu <- Finger me here for PGP Public Key.

Michael D. Crawford wrote:

> In the December '94 issue of Wired, ("Watching the Detectives", p. 141),
> Sandy Sanfort describes Bob Fleming's work to make real-time permanent
> recordings of the body positions of police officers.
> 
> One could place a small sensor on each wrist and ankle, and record the
> positions (and velocities) of the cops body to with a _centimeter_,
> anywhere in a city.

As it happens, I'm a investor in Bob Fleming and Cherie Kushner's
start-up company. (One of several investors.) I've known them for
several years and have visited their lab/home many times.

(It was at their party that I got to spend a day talking to Vernor
Vinge, as some of you may recall me commenting on.)

So, I'd like to comment on some of these points.

> The advantage for cops is that a fallen officer can be quickly located, and
> a cop's claim to have witnessed an event can be corroborated by
> demonstrating that he was actually there.

Bob and Cherie _cringe_ when I joke about their loalizers being the
basis of the nation's "position escrow system." They fully understand
the ramifications and potential abuses of a system which could allow
position tracking to a few meters of every citizen-unit in a country.

(And a huge early market is expected to be "child localization," a la
the child-minder beacons some parents are already attaching to their
children. Bob and Cherie's system is much smaller, cheaper, etc.

> After the Rodney King incident, I had the notion, (which I did not act on
> to actually promote, I'm sorry to say), that organizations representing
> people that feel persecuted by the law could issue disposable cameras to
> all there members. For example, if a street gang felt the cops were

This was an idea explored in detail by David Brin in 1990 in his novel
"Earth." Video cameras are ubiquitous and have a major effect on
casual street crime.

...
> Yes, that's right - keep surveillance cameras going on _yourself_. If
> you're not doing anything illegal, you've got nothing to fear from taping
> everything you do.

This scenario is a likely way that "position escrow" will evolve, from
a voluntary escrowing (incl. timestamping, etc.). "Those with nothing
to hide" will agree to escrow their movements...this will exculpate
them in suspected crimes, etc. A slippery slope.

On the topic of how these localizers actually work, I'm not at liberty
to talk about the technology. It's novel, and uses a *lot* if digital
signal processing. It doesn't use GPS and it's not a variant of
cellular telephones.


--Tim May


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