Tampa starts 24-hour video surveillance.
 

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NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org
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For release: July 6, 2001
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For additional information:
George Getz, Press Secretary
Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222
E-Mail: [email protected]
=============================== Tampa starts 24-hour video surveillance
of public streets. Will your town be next? [July 6] WASHINGTON, DC -- The city of Tampa has installed a network of
high-tech security cameras on public streets to monitor everyone who
passes by -- a repugnant police-state tactic that should be outlawed
before it spreads to more cities, Libertarians say. "This program is an outrage because innocent Americans have the
fundamental right to be free of surveillance by police cameras when
they are walking in a public place," said Steve Dasbach, Libertarian
Party national director. "If politicians and police in Tampa are allowed to continue this
program of warrantless video surveillance, all of America could soon
turn into the equivalent of a prison -- where innocent people are the
inmates, constantly under observation by police who are acting like 24-
hour prison guards." Last week, Tampa became the focus of a nationwide firestorm of
controversy when it installed a permanent surveillance system that uses
a "face-printing" computer software program. Police set up a network of
36 cameras that scan crowds in the Florida city's entertainment
district and match the results against a database of mug shots of
people with outstanding arrest warrants. The company that produced the technology, Visionics Corp., bragged that
Tampa -- the first city to install the system -- "is leading the pack." But no other city should follow Tampa's Big-Brotherish lead, said
Dasbach, because: * Constant police surveillance strikes at the heart of Americans' most
basic right: The right to be left alone. "In a free country, police have no right whatsoever to track, monitor,
and photograph people who aren't doing anything wrong," he said.
"Police have a duty to arrest criminals. They don't have the right to
spy on every move made by innocent people. There's a certain zone of
privacy that people who are behaving lawfully expect, even in a public
place." * It violates the Fourth Amendment. "The Fourth Amendment guarantees the right of Americans to be free of
unreasonable searches and seizures," noted Dasbach. "If the police are
monitoring and recording every step you make in a public place --
without any evidence that you have committed a crime -- that is clearly
an unreasonable and unconstitutional search." * It would allow the government to compile a vast photographic database
of people. "Police claim the digitized photos of innocent people will be erased
immediately," he said. "But government officials have made such claims
before. Americans can't trust politicians not to misuse the vast power
that such camera surveillance systems give them." The bottom line, said Dasbach: Tampa should abolish its surveillance
network immediately, and no other American city should be allowed to
install such a system. "Big Brother has arrived in Tampa -- and he's got a video camera in his
hand," he said. "But people need to let politicians know that Big
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I've heard about this, I can't decide whether to like it or hate it. Sure, it's very Orwellian and all, but if it kept someone from stealing my car I'd be damn happy about it.

Jefferson said "Every law is an infraction of liberty."

I read that in the UK where this is getting very popular that some people complain it allows the police to be selective about the crimes they bother with.

Why do I get the feeling this, just like all other governmental things, will be abused? And the pics of normal ppl will not be overwritten.

http://www.bigbrother.awards.at/2000/img/uk_awards.gif

Fly is a thought criminal.

Fly is a double plus good duckspeaker.

[This message has been edited by sweetjimmy (edited 07-09-2001).]

sweetjimmy, did you really edit that message, or was it the "thought police" aka Lensman?

It was Goldstein!

GFY is at war with AWI. GFY has always been at war with AWI.