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16 | Commentary
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Commentary: Police cameras are always watching
More than 10,000 cameras are watching Atlanta for 24 hours a day and on every day of the year, according to the Atlanta Police
Foundation. The foundation says the cameras, through a video surveillance program called Operation Shield, allow police “to prevent
crimes before they happen and quickly solve them when they do.” Meanwhile, surveillance cameras have become a target of protests
in such places as Hong Kong. We asked Dave Wilkinson, president and CEO of the foundation, a half-dozen questions about Opera
tion Shield and camera surveillance. Here are his answers.
Q: How and where does Operation
Shield gather information for police?
Operation Shield consists of a network
of cameras and license plate
readers placed across the
city that feed footage into
the Atlanta Police Depart
ment’s (APD) Video Integra
tion Center. The program
acts as both a preventative
and investigative measure
for crime. APD signage and
a signature blue light at
tached to each camera serve
as a crime deterrent to let
potential criminals know
they are being watched.
Should a crime occur, the
cameras provide real time
information to APD for in
creased situational aware
ness, as well as access to past
footage for investigations.
Q. How many cameras are now in opera
tion and monitored by Operation Shield
in the city of Atlanta? In metro Atlanta
(if you know)?
There are nearly 11,000 Operation Shield
cameras placed throughout the city of At
lanta. Additional cameras are networked
in from the city of Sandy Springs. We
hope to eventually expand the program
to other jurisdictions in the metro area.
Q: What benefits have local police seen
from use of the cameras? Do you have
any statistics for arrests made through
use of cameras or before and after crime
reports from areas that use
the cameras?
The cameras provide APD
with a “smart policing” tool
that can be used during or
after a crime’s occurrence.
The program has been in
strumental in solving some
high-profile cases including
the tragic homicide that oc
curred in 2018 at the Barce
lona Wine Bar and the fire
bombing of an APD officer’s
home earlier this year. Areas
where cameras are installed
have experienced a 20%-
50% reduction in crime.
Q: Who gets information from the cam
eras and how is it used?
The camera footage belongs to the own
ers of the cameras themselves. Some of
the cameras are owned by the city of At
lanta, while others are privately funded
by businesses and philanthropic organi
zations. APD has access to the cameras
for real-time information, should a crime
occur in the cameras’ views, and limit
ed access for a period of two weeks after
wards for the purpose of investigations.
Following this, footage needs to be re
quested from the camera owner.
Q: Does Operation Shield use facial rec
ognition software? Can the software
used to operate cameras for Operation
Shield be converted to use facial recog
nition software in the future?
Operation Shield does not currently use
facial recognition software. The Atlan
ta Police Foundation’s Technology Inno
vation Center researches and pilots mul
tiple smart policing tools each year, but
we are not currently working with a plat
form that incorporates that type of soft
ware.
Q: In some places, such as China, camer
as reportedly have been used to invade
people’s privacy or to identify people
who in some way are at odds with the
government. What keeps that from hap
pening here?
All Operation Shield cameras - even pri
vately funded cameras - exist in public
spaces such as streets, sidewalks, public
parking lots, parks, etc. They only record
where the general public has free and un
fettered access. The program is designed
to be a “force multiplier,” increasing po
lice presence and public space surveil
lance.
Dave Wilkinson,
president and CEO of the
Atlanta Police Foundation
l Letter to the Editor
If college athletes get paid, reward teams, not just superstars
Thank you for publishing the commen
tary “Amateur sports are worth saving” by
Alan Chadwick in the September issue of
theReporter.
I appreciate your paper sharing a local
football head coach’s perspective on a na
tional topic.
I agree that the “pay for play” policy by
the NCAA could open up many issues and
problems for many college athletes.
I most agree with the quote included in
the commentary from Tim Tebow, that the
game will become only about each individ
ual player, instead of the team as a whole.
A better idea, I think, is to pay a reward
to the whole team, not just the individual
superstar.
William Jablon
Seventh grade
Holy Innocents’Episcopal School
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