ACLU of Michigan Exposes Police Surveillance Cameras Being Used in Residential Neighborhood

Time for folks to check their neighborhoods to see if there are such cameras near your homes.

10-9-2012 Michigan:

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan recently put out a fascinating report (PDF) on the use of surveillance cameras in residential Lansing, Michigan which seems to be congruent with the ongoing rise of the use of surveillance cameras and associated technologies.

The growth in the use of surveillance cameras coincides with the increasingly common use of armored surveillance vehicles as well as expansion of the American surveillance state as a whole.

Remember, as a recent Senate panel discovered, invasive surveillance techniques such as those employed by fusion centers across the nation actually don’t stop terrorism but instead produce “a bunch of crap.”

While this type of surveillance technology is more commonly associated with large metropolises like New York City, the ACLU of Michigan’s report shows that the use has expanded into residential areas as well.

Some of the placements are nothing short of disturbing with one camera boasting a 360-degree field of view of an area up to 500 feet with zoom capability placed immediately outside of a home.

The cameras placed by the Lansing Police Department run around the clock and leverage high-definition color, night vision and focus features that allow the camera to “resolve minute detail in even the most severe environmental conditions,” according to the report.

“This means that the Lansing cameras give police the ability to read words on a piece of paper in someone’s hand within 50 feet, clearly discern a license plate that is 300 feet away, or recognize a face at 400 feet,” the ACLU of Michigan writes.

While it might be somewhat comforting to note that the cameras aren’t actually monitored in real time 24 hours a day, everything captured by the cameras is digitally recorded and stored on hard drives for at least two weeks allowing for later retrieval and viewing.

While there are indeed limits placed on the surveillance of private areas ..continued... by Madison Ruppert