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davis_squareFrom my last post, I followed this and did some research..
The Department of Homeland Security has given Cambridge (and other cities) a grant to install "shot spotter" technology around in urban areas.
My understanding is that this coming to Somerville soon.
This is a series of microphones placed on poles all across the city that constantly analyze the sounds in the area. Once the system detects a sound pattern that matches a "gunshot" it triangulates the location and sends this information to the police. It saves the recording of this event and the system operators have access to this recorded data.
The Cambridge police have assured us that this can only detect high decibel events.
However, this system is capable of recording voices (at least loud ones).
Now, I know that Cambridge and Somerville police are not plotting nefarious schemes here.
They are excited about cool new toys and cool ways of helping people.
Let's step back for a second.
The police are placing microphones across the city and then saying "trust us, we will only use this to help find gunshots". The good guys have this today.
As a software engineer I can make reasonable guesses as to how the system works. Let's just say that I am concerned.
The shot spotter website:
http://www.shotspotter.com/news/article/producers-blog-privacy-and-security-in-the-balance
Essentially says (paraphrased) "You have no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public area, you give your info to advertisers all the time anyway, so what does it matter".
The Department of Homeland Security has given Cambridge (and other cities) a grant to install "shot spotter" technology around in urban areas.
My understanding is that this coming to Somerville soon.
This is a series of microphones placed on poles all across the city that constantly analyze the sounds in the area. Once the system detects a sound pattern that matches a "gunshot" it triangulates the location and sends this information to the police. It saves the recording of this event and the system operators have access to this recorded data.
The Cambridge police have assured us that this can only detect high decibel events.
However, this system is capable of recording voices (at least loud ones).
Now, I know that Cambridge and Somerville police are not plotting nefarious schemes here.
They are excited about cool new toys and cool ways of helping people.
Let's step back for a second.
The police are placing microphones across the city and then saying "trust us, we will only use this to help find gunshots". The good guys have this today.
As a software engineer I can make reasonable guesses as to how the system works. Let's just say that I am concerned.
The shot spotter website:
http://www.shotspotter.com/news/article/producers-blog-privacy-and-security-in-the-balance
Essentially says (paraphrased) "You have no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public area, you give your info to advertisers all the time anyway, so what does it matter".
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no subject
Date: 2014-06-19 03:05 am (UTC)To my mind even using an police administrator to open a cardboard box containing one of these things would already be a waste of public resources. Use the time that would be spent installing and monitoring them to find the Summer Arsonist, that would be good for everyone.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-19 02:21 pm (UTC)It might well be a waste of time, but I expect that the time is paid for by the DHS grant, and heaven knows, every bureaucracy likes being able to spend money given to it by an outside source.
The irony of all this is that the idea was conceived a couple of decades ago, when random gunfire on the streets of poor neighborhoods was unpleasantly common. IIRC, that was parodied in Last Action Hero (1993) when the Bad Guy is boasting about how the city is hell. He fires a few shots and shouts "Attention! I have just killed a man." After a few seconds, a faraway voice replies "Shuuut up!!!".