Police seek funds for surveillance
Management system would unify monitoring at 911 center
By Mike Santa Rita
msantarita@patuxent.com
Posted 6/03/09
Howard County police are hoping congressional representatives secure a $500,000 earmark for a computer management system that would tie existing surveillance cameras at county-owned buildings into a single system that could be monitored continuously by police.
“We’re trying to capture the crime in progress, or the risky behavior in progress so the crime can be averted,” said Capt. Glenn Hansen, of the Howard County Police Department.
The approximately 300 county-owned buildings that have cameras include police substations, fire stations, radio towers, fleet facilities, county office buildings and other government buildings. The cameras record activity at the sites, but do not relay video to the county’s 911 center, Hansen said.
A computer-run camera management system would feed video from the cameras to the police department and allow dispatchers at the county’s 911 center to alert officers to the nature of a crime at a government facility as it occurs, Hansen said.
“Before an officer arrives there we can tell what the officer will be dealing with when he gets there,” he said.
Ultimately, Hansen envisions the system including more publicly used buildings like schools and libraries, he said.
Hansen said that if the funding is secured it would take about 18 months to hook up all the cameras to the 911 center.
The project would include installation of motion detectors at the camera sites in order to keep dispatchers from watching empty screens for hours on end, Hansen said.
“Watching everything is not effective,” he said, adding that software that enables cameras to detect motion or to detect human shapes would trigger the dispatcher’s monitors.
Hansen said he did not know when the earmarked project would be considered by Congress.
Currently, U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin, and U.S. Reps. Elijah Cummings and John Sarbanes, all Democrats, have included the $500,000 earmark as part of their budget requests. This is the first year that the government has required representatives to make their earmarks public by posting them on Web sites.
“We’re trying to capture the crime in progress, or the risky behavior in progress so the crime can be averted,” said Capt. Glenn Hansen, of the Howard County Police Department.
The approximately 300 county-owned buildings that have cameras include police substations, fire stations, radio towers, fleet facilities, county office buildings and other government buildings. The cameras record activity at the sites, but do not relay video to the county’s 911 center, Hansen said.
A computer-run camera management system would feed video from the cameras to the police department and allow dispatchers at the county’s 911 center to alert officers to the nature of a crime at a government facility as it occurs, Hansen said.
“Before an officer arrives there we can tell what the officer will be dealing with when he gets there,” he said.
Ultimately, Hansen envisions the system including more publicly used buildings like schools and libraries, he said.
Hansen said that if the funding is secured it would take about 18 months to hook up all the cameras to the 911 center.
The project would include installation of motion detectors at the camera sites in order to keep dispatchers from watching empty screens for hours on end, Hansen said.
“Watching everything is not effective,” he said, adding that software that enables cameras to detect motion or to detect human shapes would trigger the dispatcher’s monitors.
Hansen said he did not know when the earmarked project would be considered by Congress.
Currently, U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin, and U.S. Reps. Elijah Cummings and John Sarbanes, all Democrats, have included the $500,000 earmark as part of their budget requests. This is the first year that the government has required representatives to make their earmarks public by posting them on Web sites.
user comments (2)
user beatendowntaxpayer says...
300 county owned buildings??? really??? That seems like a problem all it's own. Oh, by the way, some research into the effectiveness of these cameras would have shown that they do absolutely nothing to prevent crime, increase arrests or improve conviction rates.
Posted 11:55 PM, 06.03.09 | Permalink
user independent says...
Surveillance is not negative on it's own, but humans who interpret the surveillance are a great concern.
Posted 8:09 AM, 06.04.09 | Permalink
related articles
Advertisement
most popular
- read
- emailed
Advertisement
Advertisement