Surveillance System Allows Police to View Any Camera

Surveillance System Allows Police to View Any Camera

  • By Sydny Shepard
  • May 20, 2016

Everywhere you go, there is a surveillance camera watching you. This could evoke two difference kinds of feelings inside of you: either security or fear. Even if it is fear you feel, you could always been calmed by the idea that no one person could view the footage from all the cameras.

Not anymore.

WIRED reported that computer scientists are working on a way to allow law enforcement access to any camera that isn’t password protected. This could help police determine where to send help or how to respond to an ongoing crime.

“It’s a way to help people take advantage of information that’s out there,” David Ebert, electrical and computer engineer at Purdue University told WIRED.

The system, which is only just in its concept stage, relies on two tools developed independently at Purdue. The first is The Visual Analytics Law Enforcement Toolkit, it overlays the rate and location of crimes and the location of police surveillance cameras. The second, CAM2, reveals the location and orientation of public network cameras. By using these two programs, law enforcement officials could essentially have eyes everywhere.

The system does not tap into private feeds, nor does it use the cameras to look into private spaces like people’s homes. But, aggregating this data and mapping it against specific crimes or emergencies is troubling because there is no way of knowing when someone violates the terms of services and targets an individual.

While privacy advocates are frightened by this overhaul of technology into the law enforcement sphere, they realize that not all battles are worth fighting and at a certain point, need to figure out how to use the technology in the most efficient way possible.

About the Author

Sydny Shepard is the Executive Editor of Campus Security & Life Safety.

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