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A few of the comments here seem to have not read the article. This is an opt-in program that effectively creates a map with contact info of private citizens wi

A few of the comments here seem to have not read the article. This is an opt-in program that effectively creates a map with contact info of private citizens with cameras. When something nefarious happens in a particular area, the police can reach out to the people who put themselves on the map and ask if they have footage and are willing to share it. The police already and have always done this.

jodrellblank 5y ago
> "The police have always done this" Assuming police in the 1840s couldn't find citizens with cameras watching the street, how long is your "always"? ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_the_United_States#Development_of_modern_policing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_the_United_... )
- alex_sf 5y ago
  Since the advent of surveillance cameras I suppose. So, 1927? https://www.asecurelife.com/history-of-security-cameras/ https://www.asecurelife.com/history-of-security-cameras/
  - jodrellblank 5y ago
    I was genuinely asking what you meant by "always" when the police have been around 180 years and the ability for individual homeowners to be recording footage of whatever they want in common usage has been around maybe 10 years. Given that link, I would be very surprised if the Minnesota Police heard of Leo Theremin connecting a camera to a TV in the Kremlin in 1927 and immediately organised a map of citizens with cameras they could "ask if they have footage and are willing to share it"; the link says CCTV was a military thing until 1950, was expensive and uncommon until the 1960s because it needed someone always watching the feed, so ther ewouldn't have been any recordings for the police to view for over 40 years. Then "it wasn’t until the late 1990s that it started appearing in mainstream camera products like security cameras for the average business or home." I'm guessing the time the police would routinely ask if anyone had footage of the crimes would be sometime after that, after CCTV recordings became popular enough in businesses that there was a good chance of a camera seeing a crime in enough cases to make it worth organising. Maybe mid to late 1990s for businesses? Then, individuals with things like Nest Doorbells ("homeowner surveillance camera program") wouldn't be a thing until maybe 2010s? Which makes me think it's an odd thing to say the police "always did this".
    - alex_sf 5y ago
      > Which makes me think it's an odd thing to say the police "always did this". That's fair. My statement of 'always' referred to what's typical and standard prior to the change. I.e., what is the actual net change as a result of this program? So far as I can tell, nothing really. Other than citizens voluntarily deciding to fill out a spreadsheet vs police needing to drive around and do it.
sdenton4 5y ago
I have a friend who has done some paralegal work on criminal cases, which has included stitching together many videos from doorbell devices to see a traumatic event from 5+ angles, or reconstruct the path of a car through a neighborhood before or after an event. The surveillance machinery is already firmly in place, and is always just a subpoena away.

jodrellblank 5y ago

> "The police have always done this" Assuming police in the 1840s couldn't find citizens with cameras watching the street, how long is your "always"? ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_the_United_States#Development_of_modern_policing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_the_United_... )

alex_sf 5y ago
Since the advent of surveillance cameras I suppose. So, 1927? https://www.asecurelife.com/history-of-security-cameras/ https://www.asecurelife.com/history-of-security-cameras/
- jodrellblank 5y ago
  I was genuinely asking what you meant by "always" when the police have been around 180 years and the ability for individual homeowners to be recording footage of whatever they want in common usage has been around maybe 10 years. Given that link, I would be very surprised if the Minnesota Police heard of Leo Theremin connecting a camera to a TV in the Kremlin in 1927 and immediately organised a map of citizens with cameras they could "ask if they have footage and are willing to share it"; the link says CCTV was a military thing until 1950, was expensive and uncommon until the 1960s because it needed someone always watching the feed, so ther ewouldn't have been any recordings for the police to view for over 40 years. Then "it wasn’t until the late 1990s that it started appearing in mainstream camera products like security cameras for the average business or home." I'm guessing the time the police would routinely ask if anyone had footage of the crimes would be sometime after that, after CCTV recordings became popular enough in businesses that there was a good chance of a camera seeing a crime in enough cases to make it worth organising. Maybe mid to late 1990s for businesses? Then, individuals with things like Nest Doorbells ("homeowner surveillance camera program") wouldn't be a thing until maybe 2010s? Which makes me think it's an odd thing to say the police "always did this".
  - alex_sf 5y ago
    > Which makes me think it's an odd thing to say the police "always did this". That's fair. My statement of 'always' referred to what's typical and standard prior to the change. I.e., what is the actual net change as a result of this program? So far as I can tell, nothing really. Other than citizens voluntarily deciding to fill out a spreadsheet vs police needing to drive around and do it.

sdenton4 5y ago

I have a friend who has done some paralegal work on criminal cases, which has included stitching together many videos from doorbell devices to see a traumatic event from 5+ angles, or reconstruct the path of a car through a neighborhood before or after an event. The surveillance machinery is already firmly in place, and is always just a subpoena away.