Expert: Jason Grabill - 1/25/2012

Question
1.   In Great Britain the use of CCTV by law enforcement officials is significantly more extensive than in the United States. In one instance, law enforcement agencies have chosen not to post maps displaying the entire police CCTV coverage in the city because it is believed that criminals could potentially use the information to avoid the CCTV system. Do you think you get greater crime prevention by criminals knowing that cameras exist somewhere rather than knowing that a camera is observing a specific location? If criminals do not know the specific locations of cameras, then the general public doesn’t either. Although CCTV  is used by law enforcement in public places, do you see privacy problems? Do your personal privacy concerns outweigh any benefit you see of CCTV in public?

2.   If you were a police manager responsible to set up a new in-car video system, what technology would you include? How would you configure the activation scheme? How long would you keep the information? Let’s make it interesting, presume that you have a limited budget and can afford a fully integrated system for a few patrol cars, or a limited system for all of your patrol cars. Which would you choose and why?


3.   If you were responsible for providing training to police officers on video evidence, what would you cover? Why?

Answer
Sorry for the delay in response!

1:  I think you do get greater protection if the criminals don't know where the system(s) are.

2:  In today's day and age, with social media, etc, 'privacy' has to be re-defined, I think.  The old adage of 'If you aren't doing anything wrong, why do you care' applies, at least for me.

3:  I'd rather have the CCTV available but that is a personal decision.

Second question:

I'd go limited for all cars, just because it's better to have more coverage with all cars than great coverage for only a few.  

Third question:

I'd go with relevant case law and recent court decisions, because they are going to have the most immediate impact on how they do their jobs.