Washington, DC- The mayor of D.C. has a message for potential criminals:
Mayor Muriel Bowser declared, “If you haven’t figured it out by now, you’re going to be on camera you’re going to get caught.”
The more than 300 cameras in the city will now be watched in real time.
The mayor gave a tour of the Real Time Crime Center of D.C.’s new location on Thursday morning. Officers from nine federal and local law enforcement agencies, including the Secret Service, Amtrak, Fairfax, Montgomery, and Prince George’s Counties, U.S. Capitol Police, and Metro Police, will be monitoring the camera around-the-clock, 365 days a year, starting in January.
In two years, the mayor wants to double the number of cameras and invites businesses to participate in the real-time center. Criminals frequently cross borders, according to Chief Pamela Smith. The chief gave the example of a carjacking that occurred in Prince George’s County.
“When that call comes in, we can track that vehicle in real time and it will be a quicker response time than we have right now,” Smith said. “That person could be a sworn officer or a professional staffer sitting in that space as an analyst.”
However, it was referred to as a “alarming expansion of government surveillance” by the ACLU of DC. Below is their full statement:
“A police monitoring center that keeps an eye on District residents’ movements around the clock is a concerning development in government surveillance. The real-time surveillance center raises important concerns about our safety and rights, yet it does so without any control. What actions will police be keeping an eye out for? If they believe they have seen it, what will they do? What information will police gather, and with whom will they share it? And who will watch over the police to make sure their rights aren’t being violated? Unrestricted government monitoring jeopardizes everyone’s rights in the community and does not increase public safety. Accountability, safeguards, and openness are necessary for true public safety.”
“We will work with our legal team to ensure that information we do gather as far as data is accessible to the public,” Chief Smith stated.
“A camera cannot replace a live police officer, but it does increase our ability to be in more places,” Bowser continued. “We have to have more technology to balance off not having the number of people and resources we haven’t had in past years.”
According to Smith, the center will help resolve misunderstandings and problems with communication between authorities. One such instance involves a 16-year-old Fairfax adolescent who was informed by police that he was sought for a DC killing one whole week before MPD even got an arrest warrant.
According to the prosecution, he used that week to dispose of evidence. The chief stated that a probe is underway into her officers’ premature notification of Fairfax.
“To be fair to the investigation, we’ll let it run its course. If there is anything we can do better, we will definitely take action; the people in that area will undoubtedly assist us in addressing those discrepancies,” the chief stated.
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