DC: Urban Areas Security – Integration of thousands of private and public cameras
see also Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) – The District’s top security chiefs are planning to expand their use of electronic surveillance and to procure new technology that “allows us some flexibility,” Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said.
The chief’s remarks followed an announcement last month from the D.C. Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) that it wants to add its oversight surveillance feeds from banks and other financial institutions, gas stations and mom-and-pop shops to the information from the 4,500 cameras already positioned at schools and other public sites. “In forthcoming years, HSEMA will begin to integrate other [Closed Circuit TV] systems such as the District of Columbia Housing Authority, Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority, CSX Corporation, and local private businesses,” HSEMA’s “Performance Plan” for 2001 states.
Such a move would add the District to a list of cities already receiving private videos, including Baltimore and New York.
The plans align with the 2010 Homeland Security Strategic Plan by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Developed by the region’s public and private sectors, the plan has as its primary objective “a safe and secure” National Capital Region, and its No. 1 goal is to “ensure interoperable communications capabilities” to transmit and receive voice, data and video on a “day-to-day basis.”
From Deborah Simmons The Washington Times
