Detroit Police Are Playing 'Big Brother' at Local Businesses

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Detroit Police Are Playing 'Big Brother' at Local Businesses
> Date: March 3, 2018 at 2:46:50 PM EST
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> Detroit Police Are Playing ‘Big Brother’ at Local Businesses
> The city’s Project Green Light surveillance program is an expanding threat to people’s privacy.
> By ACLU National
> Mar 1 2018
> <https://medium.com/aclu/detroit-police-are-playing-big-brother-at-local-businesses-2d5b326e856>
>
> If you’ve been to Detroit recently, you may have seen flashing green lights outside liquor stores, gas stations, and 
> other businesses. The lights, according to police, are supposed to act as a deterrent, warning criminals that cameras 
> are present, streaming real-time images of everyone entering or leaving the premises straight into police 
> headquarters. This is the Motor City’s two-year-old surveillance program, Project Green Light, which its evangelists 
> argue reduces crime at minimal expense to the city’s taxpayers.
>
> The problem with that optimistic prediction is that study after study has shown that there is little evidence, if 
> any, that programs like this work. But there is something we do know for sure: Programs like these violate our 
> constitutional right to privacy by allowing police to peer into our lives without having to bother to get a search 
> warrant.
>
> Constant video streaming to the authorities amounts to an open-ended warrant without probable cause, enabling Detroit 
> police as well as state and federal law enforcement agencies — including the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, 
> Firearms and Explosives; and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — to view and record the comings and goings of 
> innocent Americans. This means that even when not open to the public, cameras would capture the inside and outside of 
> restaurants, book stores, and coffee shops, which are common meeting places for many organizations, such as unions, 
> immigrant rights advocates, and religious congregations.
>
> Under Project Green Light, participating local businesses pay about $5,000 to purchase a minimum of four 
> high-definition surveillance cameras and other recording equipment installed. Business owners then shell out $150 or 
> so a month to store the recordings. The police, however, are not very forthcoming about how they position the 
> cameras. It’s uncertain whether they place the cameras to capture footage of the street surrounding the business or 
> of neighboring lots.
>
> In return, police patrol the area, meet with business owners, and gain the ability — though not the obligation — to 
> monitor the live video stream, complete with facial recognition technology, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Police 
> also promise that any business joining Project Green Light gets first priority when they dial 911. In Detroit, all 
> 911 calls aren’t treated equally — and if business owners want quality service, they’ll have to subsidize the 
> construction of the police’s surveillance apparatus to get it.
>
> Priority service, however, may be an empty promise. It might have been feasible in 2016, when there were only eight 
> participating businesses. But that seems increasingly unlikely. Today there are about 250 members of Project Green 
> Light, which the city hopes to increase to 400 by the end of the year.
>
> Proponents like Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan say Project Green Light reduces crime. “Crime at and adjacent to Project 
> Green Light businesses has gone down 23% since the program began two years ago and carjackings citywide have seen a 
> 44% reduction,” the city website states.
>
> Although there are many reasons to distrust these statistics, the primary reason is that the city hasn’t compared the 
> crime rates at Project Green Light businesses with crime rates at nonparticipating businesses. The city also fails to 
> acknowledge that other factors, such as added police patrols and extra lighting, could play a role in falling crime 
> rates around Green Light properties. Until a comparative study is done and these other variables are taken into 
> account, the city’s numbers are a statistical sleight of hand.
>
> These numbers also seem suspect given that several studies done on surveillance programs show they are far from 
> successful. The ACLU evaluated a similar police surveillance program used in Lansing, Michigan. In 2009 and 2010, we 
> found that major crime actually increased within the 500-foot viewing range at five of the 12 cameras posted around 
> the city.
>
> [snip]
>
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