City Mandates Installation of "Big Brother" Video Monitors in All New Buildings

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(NaturalNews) The city government of Aberdeen, Maryland, has passed a measure requiring all new developments to install centrally monitored police cameras upon request.

Under the new law, which becomes effective immediately, the Police Department, the Department of Planning and Community Development, and the Department of Public Works will evaluate each new commercial, industrial or residential development to decide whether cameras should be installed there. If they decide that cameras are required, developers will be required to comply or no development permit will be issued.

The cameras, to be placed at "strategic locations," will be remotely monitored and controlled from police headquarters. They have the ability to zoom in and to rotate a full 360 degrees.

Councilmember Ruth Elliot, the only member to vote against the ordinance, expressed concern that the law contains no guidelines for determining which developments require cameras and which do not.

"We have no internal procedures or policies on this," Elliott said.

Melissa Ngo, senior counsel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, agreed with Elliott's concerns. "How are they going to decide?" Ngo said. "If this is going to be low-income development, are they going to watch over the poor people? If this is going to be fancy condos, are they going to decide that they don't need to look over those people?"

Mayor S. Fred Simmons dismissed privacy concerns as meaningless. "You can't go to a supermarket, the ATM, or a drugstore without being camera'ed," he said. "They're all camera'ed. ... Look up and there's three or four white cameras capturing everything on the state highway. We live in that age."

Although crime has been on the downswing in Aberdeen, Simmons says that expanding camera surveillance will bring the numbers down even lower. He also wants to place more cameras along U.S. highway 40, connected to a computer database that can run license plate numbers and check for stolen cars or vehicles with expired registrations.

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