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Minneapolis Airport Gets $20 Million Hi-Tech Security Upgrade
New submitter bzzfzz writes "The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) is beginning a $20 million upgrade of its surveillance system. The upgrade will include 1800 high-definition cameras, facial recognition systems, and digital archiving to replace the analog tape system in use since the 1980s. The system will serve both security and operational goals. The MAC asserts that improved camera technology yields improved security as though the connection between the two is so strong that no proof is required."
Now we can be better stalked and assaulted by miscellaneous anonymous government bureaucrats.
it won't work on black people. I'll be able to run through the concourse buttnaked and security will never be able to find me.
Who needs 'proof' when all you've said is that having more coverage gives you a chance to be safer? Well, yes, "it might help", which simply can't be refuted since it doesn't really say much.
One more step towards the 100% surveillance society we're moving towards.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Thank GOD! I felt so scared I was going to die to terrorists, when I managed to catch my flight to Denver in under 30 minutes of xrays, scanning, and waiting in line. Something needs to be done remove this streamlined process. We're talking about entire HOURS less of waiting in line while the TSA herds people like cattle. It's about time someone corrected this oversight at MSP and got those wait times up where they belong.
There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
Maybe now they can finally catch all those TSA screeners pilfering things from people's bags.
I always get excited when I see something about my home state make slashdot, but alas it is always bad news. The MAC is just a bunch of political appointees attempting to funnel money to Mark Dayton's supporters. At least the high-res cameras seem like they might have some useful public effect (whether you agree with the need or not), unlike many of the things they do: millions of $$ to rename the damn terminals, millions of $$ providing/installing noise insulation in single family homes(those people all paid less because they were by the airport).
Anyway, next time you fly thru MSP look to the camera and flip the MAC a high-def bird for increasing the cost of your flight, your parking and your airport food purchases.
They'll be able to see the slightest of foot taps in the men's room.
So anyone who looks even mildly Middleeastern can expect to be searched from head-to-toe and watched over by X number of security cameras while he/she moves through the airport. Then he/she will fly into an airport somewhere else in the world, where the exact same thing will occurr again. Special search because of your mildly Middleeastern looks, and cameras that follow you around the airport 24/7. --------- This is INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM, not SECURITY. But by the time America figures this out, it will be too late. Every airport in the world with a little spare money will follow the American example eventually, and flying anywhere will turn into a truly Orwellian experience. -------- What good is safety, if the method that provides it is largely based on being SELECTIVELY RACIST against anyone with mildly Middleeastern looks?
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
The Twin cities are a major transit hub for flights originating from Asia.
Most of my trips from SE Asia via Tokyo, Narita have ended with a transit through Minneapolis when I was in College in the Midwest.
I feel safer already.
"The MAC asserts that improved camera technology yields improved security as though the connection between the two is so strong that no proof is required."
My immediate thought was "What is 'no proof is required' a euphemism for?"
Probably something along the lines of "We have no supporting evidence, and decided not to bother testing it, because the results might come out wrong for our marketing, so we're going with the 'obvious to anyone but a real dummy' approach."
What else could they be trying to hide with such a comment?
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
Since this my home town airport will they finally find the crap that I accidentally bring through security like:
Pocket knives forgotten in my pocket
Straight edge razors in the carry on suitcase
Shotgun shells forgotten in my coat pocket
Rifle round forgotten in my coat pocket
Time to offend someone
meant being Irish?
I don't remember this much hoopla being lavished on ... say... the Guildford Four.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
It's an election year. It seems that many Americans are genuinely worried about increased surveillance. The idea that it's all ineffectual security theater against an ephemeral and perhaps non-existent enemy also appears pervasive. So why aren't you making it an election issue? Millions of people loudly declaring "I won't vote for you unless you restructure/abolish the TSA" would send a pretty strong message.
I mean, how dare a Dutch jeweller put up high quality camera's so the two gentlemen who merely came here to seek someone elses fortune be caught on camera red handed AND still the mother of one claims it wasn't one of them and they never did anything because to a certain type of people, getting hold of a weapon in a country were guns are restricted is perfectly normal.
Can you guess the skin color of these mis understood individuals who are so pitiful for being so scared by an unarmed man they had to shoot him multiple times at close range. And then were so remorseful they rather succesfully managed to flee except that thanks to high-def images everyone knew who they were so the few family members who didn't do anything to stop them getting weapons convinced them to turn them in.
When profiling certain races doesn't lead to a 99% success rate in finding criminals, racial profiling will stop. I had a rather nice view of some bleeding hearts results at profiling at Weesp train station today, a check for tickets atthe exit. Gosh, whites, asians even a few blacks. And two middle eastern type. Fat, heads shaved at the back... gosh... they didn't have tickets. HOW suprising! But no racial profiling. Everyone has to show tickets, just to catch two. That is efficient, else they might feel picked on... Maybe if just ONCE these types bought a ticket, the only they got one if they got access to a free one.
Oh, it is not everyone with a brown skin, but with clothing, hairstyles, attitude, it is just to easy to pick them out.
But oh no, that is racist. No it fucking isn't. It is culturist. It is the simple knowledge that certain cultures lack morals. Mod me down all you want, that is what they done in Belgium, anyone who dared to be anti-PC was ignored... and the resentment just grew and grew. Right now the issue can the still be solved, another decade or two and someone somewhere with charisma and nasty ideas will build a powerbase on that resentment and then every bleeding heart will ask "how could this happen".
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I doubt it - neither Kalispell (Montana) airport nor MSP airport caught my wife's mini boxcutter or pocket knife multitool (3 inch pocketknife) in her purse. She didn't even realize they were there until arriving home.
If they're replacing an old video tape system from the 80's, then you can bet that the resolution of the cameras are standard definition. They may even be B&W. If the storage medium was tape, it was probably stored in analog by something as simple as a VCR. Those heads can clog so easily, and degrade so that the resolution is even worse.
Adding new cameras gives them the opportunity to have higher resolution video, controllable mounts for direction and zoom, and probably a professional DVR system that would store the video digitally, which would make it easier to submit video of suspects to law enforcement for standard crimes, not just terrorists.
(insert Patriotism here)
So what they are saying is a terrorist can put on a latex mask and pose as someone else and still blow us up on a flight. Great.....
In other words, The Metropolitan Airports Commission is flushing another $20 million of tax payers money down the endless sewer that is known as the TSA.
I wonder if in 200 years the TSA will be remembered as fondly as we do the Salem witch trials. Instead of drowning, we're gonna see if gamma radiation kills you or not. If not you obviously must be a terrorist and should be shot or sent to Gitmo. In fact in 5 years I think these bastards are just gonna kill anyone who shows up at the airport. If you're not a terrorist, why else would you want to fly? Hell, flying ain't natural anyhow. Only witches, (cough) I mean terrorists would want to fly.
Proof? Obviously not needed. It's about security. Mark. My. Words: Se-Cu-Ri-Ty. No proof required. Obvious, of course. Or are you one of them pinko-hippie-commie-nazi-paedophile terrists or sumtin'? Right, thought so.
... or did I miss <sarcasm> tag? ;)
Even if you read only /., you could not have missed this: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/05/04/1823258/rand-paul-has-a-quick-fix-for-tsa-pull-the-plug
And yes, his dad's presidential campaign is going on well better than expected (though you are unlikely to read about this in mainstream media), for Ron Paul's views on TSA see, e.g., this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a14ktflduO0 (note that it is a speech from 2007, pre-current wave of intencified abuse).
Paul B.
I meant...the people who own the company which sold the 10M$ system ...now they are financially secured....
Having security measures and surveillance at a location like this isn't my problem. It's the surveillance of daily activities, monitoring of my transactions, and snooping on my communications that bothers me.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
The airport commission is where empires are built. If MAC isn't remodeling something or building something or buying a dozen new squad cars for the airport police (look! you can see them all parked together, like they don't need that many...), they're making sweetheart deals with the one remaining major carrier.
The funny thing is, since the NWA/Delta merger, Delta can't ship assets out of MSP fast enough (maintenance, ground operations, etc). Why MAC thinks we need a brass-plated airport when in 10 years the only direct flight you can get out of MSP is to another carrier's hub city is beyond me, but they have built a multi-terminal airport that's just ridiculously large and unsuited to the future role of air travel in MSP or the future of air travel in a era of expensive fuel.
As far as I can find, Minnesota has never had an incident of terrorism. "Terrorism" in Minnesota seems to consist of throwing glitter at people.
The TSA has a history of stealing stuff from people's checked luggage and occasionally even their hand luggage or laptops. Maybe these cameras will be used to catch some of those thieves?
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Not only did Bruce demonstrate how useless the security at MSP is, but it's his home airport. My guess is that the TSA want all this extra 'security' to keep tabs on him.
If intelligent life is too complex to evolve on its own, who designed God?
Any word about an "Airport Improvement Fee" (actual wording may vary) that will be tacked on tickets flying out of/terminating in Minneapolis?
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
Could this have anything to do with the large population of Somali immigrants in Minneapolis? There are indications of a criminal minority among them.
"Over the past 25 years, the United States has admitted about 84,000 Somali refugees [they've got that figure about right, but they don't include all those who got in through other immigration programs or who came in illegally and have disappeared---ed]. Close to 40 percent live in Minnesota."
http://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/why-so-many-somalis-in-minneapolis/
To say it is happening in that city is to ignore that it may be targeting a particular population. Or maybe there are other security risks in that city that I am unaware of...
...omphaloskepsis often...