Coming to a laptop near you, the vivid panoply of Newark street life, in virtual real time, giving you an opportunity to observe what’s going on – eventually – anywhere in the city. A system that, officials say, makes residents a powerful ally in the city’s crime-fighting efforts.
“They get an opportunity to look at what’s going on in their neighborhood,” said Mayor Ras Baraka, “a suspicious car, individuals that are there who shouldn’t be there, a robbery that may have taken place, folks that are out on the corner selling drugs, anything of that nature, it would give them the opportunity to look at that while they’re not home, be able to make a report to the police department and they can see the same thing. It corroborates their story, helps us make an arrest, or possibly prevent something from taking place before it actually happens.”
But that’s not entirely accurate. The feed streams with a delay, anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds, by our count, so whatever you see isn’t exactly happening as you see it. Still, police say they record the cameras’ views and hold onto the footage for a fixed amount of time, which they asked us not to share with the public. They plan a three-phase roll out, said Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose.
“Today you can monitor 60 cameras,” he noted. “Residents can do it on their desktops and iPads. However, Oct. 1 they’ll be able to do it on their phones. And then on Jan. 1, we’ll have a state-of-the-art police surveillance room where police officers will be watching.”
Officials say the system is designed to ensure your anonymity, but you’ll need to provide an email to gain access to the feeds.
If it all seems a little Big Brother-y to you, you’re not alone. The ACLU of New Jersey, which says they were not consulted on the project, raised concerns about privacy issues.
“Anyone, from the comfort of their own living room, can look at these live video feeds and an abuser could see a domestic violence victim or a stalking victim, and if someone were to watch the video feeds and see someone stepping out of their house with suitcases, well they can bet that that person is going to be away for a couple of days and that creates a situation ripe for burglary,” said Dianna Houenou, Policy Counsel for ACLU-NJ. “And by calling on civilians to patrol these video streams, that amounts to outsourcing our policing, and that’s not what the Newark police division is here to do.”
The system was funded with an $850,000 grant from Panasonic. Ultimately, the system will expand to 300 cameras in a couple of years. Right now, police say the main viewers of this street programming will be you, and that it’ll be nine months before a squad of civilians and police are brought on to monitor the system 24 hours a day.
