New Cameras To End All Crime In City

If you’re following Damon C. Williams’ Twitter — and you should be — then you already know this, but let’s go: The city is spending $8.9 million to install new security cameras.

The city will pay the almost nine mil to Unisys, which will begin rolling out the cameras within three weeks. The first cameras will be at 52nd and Market, but can see over a two-mile radius, so pretty much the police are going to be able to see whatever illegal activity you do anywhere in the city eventually.

Mayor Street will probably be able to watch the cameras from his iPhone. Or, rather, he would be if the cameras were going to work, which they most certainly won’t. This is Philly, come on.

Unisys to run surveillance system for Phila. police [Philadelphia Biz Journal]
Phila. Police Dept. Set to Roll Out New Security Cameras [KYW 1060]

Smile, You’re On Candid Camera (Maybe)

Hey, kiddies! You like being on television? Well, you’re going to get a lot more chances soon, since apparently the entire City of Philadelphia will eventually be blanketed with 24/7/365 coverage.

Fortunately for the city’s more paranoid residents, there’s a good chance they won’t work at all. So, really, that sort of means the city is going to put up lots of non-functioning cameras, which is even better.

Philadelphia police say a pilot program that has located cameras as various locations in the city is having an impact on crime and police say they eventually hope to have the ability to place cameras anywhere around the city. [...]

“We want to establish a city-wide wireless network that will give us the ability to put a camera virtually anywhere in the city we need to; whether it’s for major events, homeland security, crime issues, or quality of life issues.”

Experts predict the city-wide wireless network to be finished in time a few weeks before the city-wide Wi-Fi network is complete, i.e. 2034.

Police Crime Cameras to be Used Across Phila. [KYW 1060]
March 26: Get Ready For More Of This In The Coming Weeks

Get Ready For More Of This In The Coming Weeks

Last fall, five security cameras were installed along the 54th Street corridor. Hooray, everyone said. Government surveillance in the name of protection! But it wasn’t exactly government surveillance, as the cameras were run by the Philadelphia Commercial Development Corp. And it also wasn’t exactly government surveillance because the cameras don’t really work.

Well, they work, but only sometimes. But the cameras are only checked every two weeks to make sure they’re working, so it’s sort of a pointless exercise even if the cameras are working. Naturally, the former head of the PCDC, Curtis Jones, is running for City Council (against Carol Campbell in the 4th District). And so, surprise!, here comes a story about Jones’ PCDC, less than two months before election time.

Of course, Jones didn’t do himself any favors by telling an old lady she was a liar on camera and later finding out that, no, the camera wasn’t working. The link comes from the YouTube user DontVoteCuritsJones, who one can only assume is against Curtis Jones as well.

Security Cameras Not Always Working [6 ABC]
Curtis Jones Freaks Out (and Lies) To Old Woman [YouTube]