philosecurity

Early one recent Sunday, I took the train from Boston to New York City to visit the Transit Museum. When I arrived in New York, it was still too early for the museum to be open. I decided to step outside at Penn Station and grab a sandwich.

I was surprised to see these signs:

“NYPD Security Camera in Area.”
 
Where are the cameras?

Aha! Here’s one keeping tabs on the suspicious pretzel vendor. (Look way up high at that lamppost.)

There are many more just like it. Back in 2005 and 2006, the NYPD spent $9 million installing 500 of these wireless video recorders throughout the city. According to a NY Post article last month “Police intend to be using 2,000 cameras by 2009 and 3,000 by 2011. They also hope to tap into images from an additional 2,000 private cameras.”

 
Let’s take a closer look:

These cameras are manufactured by a company called TotalRecall, which also handled surveillance for the RNC in New York. The cameras near Penn Station don’t have obvious make and model info, but in this 2006 photo of the same type of camera in Brooklyn, you can clearly see the word “CrimeEye,” plastered across the front. This looks like the CE-505, produced by TotalRecall.

The CrimeEye cameras have some pretty interesting traits. According to one of TotalRecall’s marketing documents:

“The ‘Networked’ CrimeEye™ solutions… are connected via fiber or a wireless network. Each unit is accessed and recorded within the network, and all cameras can be viewed from a single location… The activities are archived digitally on an internal DVR. This information can be retrieved by an authorized laptop…. The system records in real-time, high resolution at 30 frames per second and archived for up to 30 days at the command center.

* Dual camera solution – each capable of running a pre-programmed pattern or parked in a fixed position.
* Day/Night cameras that work in most lighting conditions.
* All information is recorded digitally on an internal DVR.
* Commercial UPS provides 2 hours of battery back-up.
* Hot Spot radio allows remote viewing and playback from
100+ feet.
* Sits on a mount that bands to a traffic light or telephone
pole and requires 120 volts.”

Other marketing documents indicate that the networked CrimeEye systems feature “remote web clients” and have “wireless access points for streetside viewing and control.”

Wow. It sounds like each of these powerful video surveillance cameras runs a web server and has a wireless access point which allows people on the street to connect to it.

Are our government’s security systems secure?

Surveillance isn’t going away. At this point, densely-populated urban centers have already become high-tech police states, and this is only the early stage. Many Americans have voiced concerns about “Big Brother,” while others encourage surveillance as a protective measure.

Debate may slow, but cannot stop, the proliferation of surveillance technology. At this point, the real questions are: What happens to all this surveillance data? What is to prevent it from being misused by the government? How can we protect the surveillance system itself from being hacked? Most of all, how can the American people give input and verify the answers to these questions?

As an American citizen, I’d like to see routine third-party verification that our government’s surveillance systems are reasonably secure, properly managed and that the data is used for appropate purposes. If the police are going to collect extensive surveillance data about millions of innocent citizens, we deserve verification that these recordings of our daily lives are protected from misuse.

If we can’t stop Big Brother from watching us, then let’s keep an eye on Big Brother.