All CCTVs to be linked by live feed to NSW police command : Melbourne Indymedia

This is New South Wales on Australia Day. The same day as there are 1,200 police on the beaches of Sydney, the day after the Australian Prime Minister John Howard tells the National Press Club that he has won the culture wars and that Australia is the only country in the Western world that doesn’t need a Bill of Rights and that we need to have an Australia of ‘one people, one destiny.’ In the same state that telephone interceptions run at a rate 30 times greater than the USA.

The Daily Telegraph, a newspaper which often runs as a propaganda piece for NSW police, reported on January 26 as an ‘exclusive’ that ‘Banks, shops and any private business with a CCTV camera will be recruited into a state-wide digital spy network to counter terrorism, violent crime and rioting.’ You can be confident it will also be used to monitor minor crime, activists and protesters.

A security blanket will be thrown over the state where thousands or tens of thousands of extra cameras will become part of the new system.

The Police Minister, Carl Scully, who belongs to the ruling Labor Party, said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph that he got the idea after returning from a meeting with the police Anti-Terrorism Branch in London. Yet in the name of terrorism, it is reasonable to think that the police will use the cameras to track the movements of anyone the government or its security services don’t like. With current digital facial recognition technology, tested at selected airports around the world, this would be easy. There was no mention by Scully of any safeguards.

An audit is already underway to list how many cameras are used across the state and their locations. The fact, therefore, that this news was made public on Australia Day – a public holiday - shows the deepest cynicism and news manipulation. In evidence of further police manipulation of the media, there has been no official press release, only the Daily Telegraph exclusive interview with the Police Minister.

A database is being established to identify who owns each video camera, with targets set to arrange the live feeds and set minimum times for recording. There will be targets for the integration of the cameras with police command, with compatible software protocols and minimum standards for footage quality. Any costs by shop-keepers and others in upgrading and connecting their cameras will be met by the State.

Even Scully is not ashamed to admit that the videos will be used to monitor petty crime. "It has clear implications for the prevention and detection of other crimes. It is vital that we know exactly where every camera is and have arrangements in place to use every piece of footage."

Welcome to NSW on Australia Day. Other states and territories in Australia are sure to follow soon.

At the Beach?
by you're being watched Thursday January 26, 2006 at 08:54 PM

CCTV Camera's on high-poles have been insalled up and down Beaconsfield Pde.

Aiming at telltale behaviour
by Stephen Dabkowski Friday January 27, 2006 at 03:38 PM
January 27, 2006 Repost from the Age Business section

SEVERAL State Government authorities will test a security camera system that has "intelligent" software to alert police to behaviour that could betoken a criminal or terrorist act.

NEC Business Solutions' "Smartcatch" is used in American railway systems and at airports across the US.

NEC has been sworn to secrecy about the identity of the authorities paying for the tests, believed to start next month at three sites.

Smartcatch allows the closed-circuit television system to alert security or the police if it detects a range of suspicious behaviours, including unattended objects, a stationary vehicle, loitering, human "tailgating" and someone entering an exit or no-go zone.

Executive manager of enterprise solutions at NEC Business Solutions, Milton Purcell, says the technology is taking video surveillance from two dimensions to three-dimensional behaviour tracking.

"Twelve million dollars has been invested in the research and development of this technology and it is being taken up around the world, particularly in the United States. The aim is to make Australia a much safer place," he said.

"The reality with CCTV is that only about 5 per cent of the video footage is ever viewed live and mostly it is used as a forensic tool after an event has happened, to reconstruct what happened.

"What Smartcatch allows video surveillance technology to do is to stop a potential terrorist or criminal act from occurring in the first place."

Mr Purcell believes the technology will in 18 months be able to analyse whether the same person comes regularly to an area to scout for a criminal act and leaves a scene by running or walking.

"Smartcatch can detect nine different suspect behaviours and the applications are endless," Mr Purcell said. "It is not just for high-security installations, it is also for the entrance of any large corporation or hotel, or even for use in a major pedestrian thoroughfare.

"It's like every CCTV can now have a brain to match its surveillance capabilities. Of course, the final decision on whether to take action on what Smartcatch alerts them to is taken by the humans on the spot."

NEC Business Solutions is also working to finalise a system that recognises faces and matches them to photographs of wanted or dangerous people. "What biometric facial recognition can do is monitor for potentially undesirable people … It can immediately check whether the person entering a secure area in an office setting has the right authorisation or even whether the correct person is sitting in front of their computer, accessing sensitive information," Mr Purcell said

"The new generation of intelligent CCTV is now here, driven by the demands of global security concerns."