LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Video Surveillance: Police
built 290 days ago
The success of the Tacoma neighborhood system has led to development of a CCTV video surveillance system in the nearby community of Tukwila to combat robbers and prostitution. A recently installed 6 camera CCTV system covers an 8 block area. Police and trained volunteers monitor the images from a centrally located storefront as part of Tukwilla's community-policing program. Residents and local merchants support the high-tech strategy: "This is a very tough neighborhood, especially at night," said the manager of a Kentucky Fried Chicken store. 64
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The deployment of the new wireless VLAN ... enabled local police to access the network directly and securely to view video surveillance footage directly from their squad cars. Additionally, the storage area network has provided the capacity the District needed to maintain an archive of its footage.
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In 1995, the national government made available up to $3.1 million in matching grants available to cities and towns to establish CCTV video surveillance programs. According to the police superintendent of a large metropolitan area, "public video surveillance has been very helpful in making arrests, and perhaps more important, helping to allocate resources to where they're most necessary." Although most municipal systems have been operational since 1990, there is little longitudinal data indicating how effective CCTV surveillance systems actually have been in reducing crime rates. Recent British government reports cite CCTV surveillance as a major reason for declining crime rates: in the small town of Berwick burglaries fell by 69 percent; in Northhampton overall crime decreased by 57 percent; and in Glasgow, Scotland crime decreased by 68 percent.25
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Should government or the police be able to use video surveillance in public places? It has been argued that the use of such surveillance helps deter crime, but many privacy activists argue that, even in public places, this practice infringes on the right to privacy.
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