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NYC 911 to Accept Cellphone Pics and Video
SpaceAdmiral writes "New York City is developing a plan to allow images to be sent to 911 emergency operators from cellphones. This will likely give emergency operators better information to pass along to responders. They're also planning on implementing a program of street-corner video cameras, as seen in the city of London. According to John A. Feinblatt, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's criminal justice coordinator: 'The more information that the police have and the more quickly that they get it, the more likely that they are going to fight a crime.'" How practical do you think it is to expand this sort of project to cities across the country? Moreover, is it worth the expense?
I for one welcome our Dispatcher Overlords. Oh, wait, I'm a Dispatcher! BOW DOWN BEFORE ME SWINE! McF
Beware of Sales Reps bearing gifts.
They're also planning on implimenting a program of streetcorner video cameras, as seen in the city of London.
There is a much better article on News.com.com: New York to use cell phone photographers to help fight crime
The service is to be implemented by PowerPhone which has a Press Release here: Technology delivers cell phone photos to 9-1-1 operators
Have you read my journal today?
Anyway. I wonder what the cell phone company will charge you for sending a video clip to the 911 service. :P
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
How practical do you think it is to expand this sort of project to cities across the country?
Very. Chicago is, I understand, laying a massive fiber loop for just this purpose. I don't know how far advanced their scheme is though. It is interesting that cities around the country are cutting back on public services, and yet still have plenty of money to spend spying on us.
Moreover, is it worth the expense?
Nope.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Worth the expense to who? The taxpayers, or law enforcement?
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One aspect of this that could be especially valuable is for the Emergency Medical Services side of 911. I'm a Firefighter/EMT, and responding to a call, the more information we have the better, and pictures/videos could definitely be useful. Often times we get dispatched for things like a hemorrhage or amputation, and its not clearly communicated to us responders what we are going to find - whether it is just someone that lost a fingertip, or if their whole arm is gone (which understandably affects what we'll bring with us to the scene as well as how we manage the whole call. My guess is this probably mostly a result of the people on scene (understandably) freaking out in an emergency and not being able to clearly communicate the severity/magnitude of an incident, so if they could send 911 operators a picture, that would help a lot.
Considering how often we hear about people calling 911 for driving directions or other ridiculous reasons, I can't help but wonder when dispatchers will start getting stuff like tubgirl...
mainly, because what if i can't talk on the phone eg home invasion and i'm hiding or i'm mute or something.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Even wiht cell phone video and stills, the police cannot respond fast enough to prevent an unarmed person from becoming a victim, and a statistic. We should all have the unrestrained right to defend ourselves, and go out strapped. Just showing a potential attacker that you are carying on your belt is enough to make him melt away.
Street corner video cameras prety much everywhere in the UK from the smallest towns to the largest citys, We live under the eye of big brother over here
Paul Gogarty
eyewitness testimony is confused and contradictory. the camera can capture the make and model of a car. a license plate. a face, a figure. details that would otherwise be lost.
I wouldn't want to go out packing, for the simple fact that the weapon would more than likely be taken from me by the assailant. Sure, I could spend a lot of time and money learning how to use the gun, how to defend myself and the gun from having it taken away from me, etc, but I don't want to spend my whole life doing nothing but learning how to defend myself. And I sure as hell don't like the idea of a small mugging, where some thug punches me in the nose and steals my iPod, turning into a shooting, where some thug punches me in the nose, steals my iPod and my gun, and then shoots me with it. At least (although I'd be out an iPod and I might need my nose set) I would probably get to go home that night.
Stasis is death. Embrace change.
yeah, but you can take a picture anyway, being able to send it to 911 doesn't really change this.
i spent five minutes thinking and all i got was this crappy sig
This sort of thing kind of makes me curious what world you're living in. What privacy? This is public we're talking about. You don't have any privacy in public. That's why it's called public and not private. Personally, I think this is a very good idea. I've been the victim of crime in a public area, and would of benefited from being able to send the dispatcher a picture of the taxi that the jerks ran off in.
And really... What's the big concern about cameras in public places anyway? Are you doing something in public you don't want video taped? Personally, I think the old mantra works just as well now as it does for putting information on the internet "If what you're doing isn't something you'd like for your Grandmother to find out about, don't do it".
I also am a fulltime FF/EMT. If there was one thing that cell phone users could do to help, it would be a law requiring callers to stay on the scene when they call in something. You would not believe the number of calls we get for a dead guy (who is really a drunk guy asleep against a building or a tired traveler sleeping in their car), smoke investigations which turn out to be smoke from a fire place, odor investigations which can not be found at all, car wrecks which can't be found. Many times we are sent on a wild goose chase because the information we got from the caller isn't enough for us to locate the complaint. Having the caller stick around to point out what they found or educate them on their stupid call in so they don't do it again would be great. I can see where it could be usefull for having pictures or video sent in. We have computers on our apparatuses that send us information from dispatch. Getting a picture of a reported sturcture fire where you can see flames coming out of the windows could aid in planning and requesting additional resources early. This is opposed to the call for a structure fire when its really just some dummy who left their beans on the stove too long and smoked up the whole apartment. One engine can take care of that instead of having an entire first alarm respond to take a smoking pot out of the building.
That was tried about 10 years ago when Giuliani first came into office. It stopped quickly since everyone in NYC jaywalks and the enforcement campaign eventually pissed off the wrong people. Look at any intersection in NYC - there are plenty of people jaywalking even in front of cops. You'd still need a cop to hand out the summonses and NYC cops generally have better things to do. Automated enforcement like a red light camera? Possible, I guess, but people don't wear license plates :) And automated facial recognition technology isn't 'there' yet and probably will never be. Can you imagine the furor if a few thousand people *incorrectly* get automated tickets for jaywalking?
The only reason that NYC "functions" at all is that 90% of its laws are enforced selectively if at all.
-b.
I'm not sure about anywhere else, but I know Baltimore, MD already has a system of "blue-light" cameras in place on some street corners (which would seem like a more relevant example than London, considering London isn't even in the United States).
Police in this country haven't cared about "fighting crime" for a long time. They merely exist as a means to generate municipal revenue through parking and traffic fines.
I've been robbed twice and hit by a drunk driver. In all three cases I called police, and the disbatcher explained to me that they no longer respond to calls about those sorts of crime.
Parent says: "this will: waste tax payer money, inconvenience innocent people, and have zero impact on actual criminals."
This has a significant impact on criminals. I speak from experience.
I own a business across the street from an unused building. For years it has been a site for heroin dealing, vandalism, muliple assults and batteries, and at least one mugging. I got a netcam, put the camera feed live on a web site, and informed anybody who cared to listen ( this included neighbors, cops, drug sellers and buyers, etc ). It took several months for people's behavior to change ( which was odd...I expected it to change almost overnight ) But now all we have is an occasional vagrant.
BTW, I share the concern, expressed by several posters, that cameras can be misused. The solution is to make them all public netcams, available to anyone with a browser. The cops can use information, but it is less likely for them to misuse it, because anybody could have copies.
40% is people that don't want a permanent record made of their every move when they cheat on their wife or go out to buy porn.
Simple solution:
Don't cheat on your wife and what the hell are you doing buying porn?!?
---- Liquid was a patriot ----
Ah, once again we beat the dead horse. Freedom v. safety. Didn't Thomas Jefferson say something about that?