From: Blunderov (squooker@mweb.co.za)
Date: Thu Feb 28 2002 - 07:31:53 MST
virus: Washington is Watching
Richard Ridge [richard_ridge@tao-group.com]
Thu 2002/02/28 15:02
Cited:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1845000/1845515.stm
[Blunderov]
I smell a large whiskered rat. The police chief claims the cameras have
insufficient resolution to be able to identify a particular person in a
crowd, yet later the source describes the cameras as having a 165 to 1 zoom
ratio.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is one phenomenal zoom ratio. In all my years of
working in TV I have never seen a camera with such a zoom ratio, not even on
outside broadcasts where a zoom ratio of 35 to 1 is more than sufficient.
Digital technology, it's true has made much larger zoom ratios possible and
it is also true that digital zoom produces far worse pictures than optical
zoom, nevertheless it would not be necessary to use more than 20 to 1 in
order to be able to pick a face out of a crowd that was reasonably close to
the camera.
When I was last in Europe (1998) I was amazed at the number of cameras there
are. They are literally everywhere, traffic-cameras, police-cameras, private
security CCTV.
London has cameras on all of the routes, in and out, that are connected to a
computer that scans and reads the licence plates of every vehicle and
compares them to a database of stolen and other wanted cars, eg those used
known to be used by the IRA, spooks of whatever stripe and probably
traffickers of various commodities. This BTW is not a secret - I gleaned
this info from an official pamphlet that I found on the tube to Heathrow.
The temptation to install such a system, secretly if necessary, in a society
under threat, such as, for instance, the USA, must be very considerable.
The camera has caught on here in SA as well (and has been very helpful in
containing the crime wave that was threatening to overwhelm us) and there is
no doubt that these cameras are fully capable of identifying any member of
the public that comes within their enfilade. A recent TV news broadcast had
footage of an actual murder that was committed in the CBD. The villain was
ID'ed and tracked by various cameras until his arrest. The footage will be
acceptable in court as evidence against him. I would be very surprised to
learn that US cameras are inferior to the ones in use here.
Truth is lies.
Fond Regards,
Blunderov
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