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LAPD Surveillance Cameras Go Unused
First time accepted submitter Ethanol-fueled writes "Most of the surveillance cameras installed downtown and operated by the LAPD have not been working for two years, according to interviews and records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. Many of those broke and were never repaired, and six cameras allocated to the Little Tokyo section weren't even plugged into the LAPD's monitoring bank. In one case, a 53-year-old man died after being stabbed and beaten in Skid Row — right below one of the malfunctioned cameras. It probably also didn't help that the cameras themselves were prone to being coated with pigeon droppings and the system backend being stored in a room so small that overheating was frequent. One LAPD Deputy Chief compared the situation to buying a used car without an extended warranty — 'We know the reasons it doesn't work. Now we're trying to make it work.'"
I'm sure all the politicians were patting each other on the back the day they installed it. And I'm sure their Security industry golf buddies got a nice contract and sent a fat kick-back.
I don't think anyone is surprised no one actually gave a damn about it.
First time accepted submitter Ethanol-fueled writes
Really? I am quite sure there have been stories by him before. He's a known long-time Slashdotter, after all.
I've worked with cops and I'm not terribly surprised - "excessive" wear and tear was always a problem. This isn't the first expensive system I've heard of being kept in a closet. Give it a few years and the dust might have been a factor too.
(I'm not sure if it's actually a surveillance state if nobody's looking through the broken cameras.)
Indeed. Government has already made their money here. Once agan, I feel the need to point out that in the business of government -- where they spend other people's money -- there is no such thing as a loss. Even when they fail completely, they still win. Every dollar raked through the business of government increases their leverage, and their ability to exploit that cash flow for personal gain. It's no wonder that every year government costs more, both in terms of revenue and administration: that's exactly how the game is played, and that's exactly the kind of people who would desire power over others in the first place.
At least we know where BadAnalogyGuy works now.
My deepest and sincerest sympathies to the family of the murdered man but are cameras really the answer? How about more cops that know their beats and actually engage people without being dicks? That may actually make a real difference.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
Look on the bright side, what with the police not liking themselves being filmed, what video evidence can there be of any police brutality with cameras not working?
Take Nobody's Word For It.
I doubt it was designed to fail, it was designed to make money. Unfortunately it needed to be designed to work. Even more unfortunately unless you have already done a job that has taught you all the lessons you need to have learned before implementing a project like this, you can't really hope to do it without some studies (at least product testing.)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I had to read the headline a couple of times before I realized it wasn't "LDAP cameras".
hey did I miss anyone else?
The Martians.
Historically, a beat cop's job was to go around and black-jack the thugs into the shadows and make the street safer for the tax-payers. Somehow a confluence of enforcing numerous new laws and civil-rights lawyers for the unlicensed thugs has made actual public service a lower priority; A pretext now, actually- if crime rates continue to fall, expect new laws to criminalize more of the tax-payer class as they are much safer and more convenient to arrest and incarcerate than professional felons.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.