Hard Technology of Crime Prevention

Professor Byrne Lecture: October 7th, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol2i_Hax0HY&feature=related

Hard Technology Crime Prevention Applications

• CCTV• Street Lighting• Personal Protection devices: guns, tasors,

knives, mace, etc.• Home protection devices: locks,

surveillance,monitoring,private security• Neighborhood protection systems: walled

neighborhoods

CCTV and Street Lighting

• CCTV and street lighting strategies often used in conjunction

• More common in England than US• Evidence of Effectiveness is mixed• Some Evidence of crime reduction for

property crimes such as auto theft• No Evidence of crime reduction for violent

crime

Next Generation of CCTV

• CCTV and Facial Recognition Software linked to National ID Data Base

• CCTV and Behavior Monitoring Software tested at John Hopkins University

• Future Shock: Beyond Orwell’s 1984 scenario

Future Shock• Imagine the scenario:• lamp post is triggered by technology to spot you walking

strangely• begins recording your conversation, scans your face to match

your details in the national database, X-rays you to check for weapons

• shouts "stand still citizen" and scans your brain to check whether you intend to commit a crime

• sees you're a bit depressed, sections you under mental health act,

• cops pick you up, hand you in to doctors who lock you up and microchip you.

Personal Protection Devices

• Extent of Use: 1 in 2 homes have a gun, but we don’t have data on the use of other personal protection devices.

• Evidence of Effectiveness is debated• Gun-related injuries from accidents are a

serious problem• Tasers are used both to commit crime and

prevent crime

Home Protection Devices

• Home security systems are more popular in urban areas.

• This week’s murder in Mount Vernon New Hampshire involved the targeting of a home in an isolated, semi-rural area.

• Case is very similar to the Zantop Murders at Dartmouth a few years ago.

• Judgement Ridge is an excellent book on this crime

Neighborhood Protection

• There are a variety of hard technology applications being used today.

• Private, gated communities are one strategy.• Private Security systems monitored by private

security firms are another strategy.• Evidence of effectiveness?

Newark Cops & CCTV

Intro of Surveillance cameras to Newark

• 110 new surveillance cameras & a gunshot detection system planned for Newark

• Sparked by the death of 3 college students in Summer 07

• Plan financed with private money raised by Newark Community Foundation, $3.2 million

Progress

• In 8 months– 44 cameras in a 7 square mile area

• The area represents the location on 80% of all Newark gun violence in last 3 years

Placement and Monitoring

• The cameras are on lamp posts, above intersections and on public & private buildings

• Footage streams real-time to a police communications center

Cntd…

• Clerks monitor footage and can adjust camera focus and field of vision

• Footage is stored for 30 days

Does it work?

• Dr. Byrne says NO

• London, England says NO

Or Does it Simply displace crime?

Newark Results

• The video surveillance unit has detected 289 criminal incidents for first quarter of 2008

• Another 799 incidents were either called in to 911 or officers on patrol

China All Seeing Eye

The Beginning

• Since 2006 over 200,000 cameras installed in a single Chinese city, Shenzhen.

• Cameras appear in public places sometimes disguised as lampposts

• In next 3 years 2 million more CCTVs expected to be installed in Shenzhen

"Since the surveillance cameras came in, we have seen a very dramatic decrease in crime in

Shenzhen."

Chinese Surveillance Camera Market

• The Chinese surveillance camera market saw revenues of $4.1 billion in 2007, up 24% from 2006

Software

• One Chinese company has created software for CCTVs that has the ability to alert police when inordinate numbers of people begin to gather in one location

The goal

• The future is that Chinese citizens will be watched on CCTV, listened to on their cell phones, monitored on digital voice recognition, internet access limited via “The Great Firewall”, and movements tracked via national ID card

The Golden Shield

• The Golden Shield is the Chinese government attempt to maintain power and complete control over its citizens

• The gov’t has been documented to have limited internet access of foreign news outlets, block cell phone calls and or text messages

Tibetan Monks

Tibetan monks have proclaimed that cameras have been introduced, unwillingly, to prayer

rooms and monasteries

Facial Recognition

• New software, that should be out within a year, will “have to be able to match a face in a 10 million database in one second.”

• This is the next “big thing” this technology use distance between eyes as a primary identifier, because it is a feature that does not change with age