The world shown in the TV show Person of Interest coming to your world soon.
It doesn’t seem to be working in Chicago.
Instead, what we saw in Boston was video monitoring, in which video cameras are put in public places mainly to record what is going on -- without necessarily having anyone watch what the cameras are seeing. The perpetrators were identified after the police and the general public combed through hours of recorded videos and still images.
One thing I like to do on Youtube sometimes is watch reality police shows from the UK, shows like Traffic Cops and Motorway Cops. On those shows, the literally millions of CCTV cameras that blanket the UK are always touted as a wonderful thing. Bar districts are blanketed by dozens or even hundreds of cameras and police operators do watch them. Everything is seen and recorded.
But they take it one step further. Since all car license plates in the UK are a common size, shape, and text font, they have what they call “ANPR”...automatic number plate recognition. A police car fitted with a video camera, or a fixed video camera, can see your car, scan it, read the license plate, get the registration, and instantly check if the car has insurance, has been taxed, has an MOT (safety inspection), has “markers” for drugs or illegal activity, whether the registered owner has a proper driver’s license for it...all without the officer lifting a finger. If a plate pings the ANPR system, the police can pull the car over and actually seize it if it’s being driven without insurance or if the owner has a suspended license or no license at all. They use them to issue the congestion tax for cars driving into central London...supposedly every street and highway into and out of London has ANPR cameras on it that scan every single car coming and going.
The geek side of me is impressed with the technology. The conservative side of me is concerned what would happen if something like this ever became more widespread on this side of the pond.
}:-)4
We let these bomber into our country and some liberals think we should suffer for it? How about we simply keep out the Muslims and others that wish us harm?
Thought comes to mind that when you’re watching everything, you’re watching nothing.
Latching onto this thread to ask a question:
Does anyone know of a good, reliable pocket audio/video recorder?
I had a little pen camera that worked for a bit, but died.
I’d carry it running all the time whenever carrying my pistols CCW.
And advise would be appreciated.
Note that surveillance cameras did not prevent the Boston bombing. And I have to ask, who is monitoring these cameras without daydreaming or falling asleep? (Girl watching?) After all, despite its surveillance cameras, isn't Chicago known, at least informally, as the murder capital of the world? This is déjà vu of TSA's full-body scanners.
As a side note, anybody know if George Soros bought stock in the foreign companies who probably manufacture these cameras? Rumors had questioned if Soros, or thugs like Soros, bought stock in companies who made full-body scanners.
Most of the convenience store cameras and many of the bank cameras have such poor quality I don’t know why they bother.