44.493 Issues in Criminal Justice Technology & Security

home > Unit 12: surveillance and sousveillance

Surveillance is close monitoring of behavior

Usually implies monitoring that's done remotely, from a distance. It is made far more possible and affordable for police today by new technologies that pinpoint location and which are far more miniaturized and unobtrusive, as well as real-time data convergence and computer processing. "The issue of patterns is important. Although in isolation a single piece of communications data seems useless, when collected together with the communications data of other people it can disclose a lot of information about organizational relationships, work patterns, contacts and personal habits. The collection and processing of communications data is largely automated using computers." (my emphasis)

Types:

• Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Surveillance Networks
• Algorithmic Surveillance Systems (facial recognition)
• subminiature cameras
• electronic tagging
• reconnaissance planes and satellites
• internet and computer surveillance
• bugging & tapping
• acoustic surveillance
• electromagnetic surveillance
  Radio, radar, infrared, visual, aerial, ultraviolet, X-ray surveillance, satellite surveillance and high-resolution aerial photographs.
• chemical and biological surveillance
  Chemical, biometric, animal, and genetic surveillance
  

Case study: GPS
as with many of our other technologies, originally developed for military navigation use.

How it works:

• at least 24 geosynchronous satellites transmit data about their location simultaneously (their time data is coordinated by the atomic clock). This data -- at least 3 must be received for accurate measurement -- is received by the GPS unit, which interprets the unit's longitude, latitude, and altitude. The GPS unit can also provide information on velocity, bearing, direction, and track of movement.
• receivers can be integrated with other systems, such as a transponder or transmitter. The transmitter takes information from the GPS receiver and transmits it on a real-time basis to a defined station, such as a police dispatcher. The dispatcher must have the system to both receive the transmission in "real time" along with the GPS data. To be truly useful, this information must be integrated with a Geographic Information System (GIS) which has a map of the community and translates the longitude and latitude into addresses.
• GPS units allow users to process this information regardless of weather conditions and location anywhere in the world-land sea or air. As a general rule, however, GPS receivers will only work outside where the signal from three satellites can be clearly received. Thus, transmissions from police cars inside a structure-such as a parking garage-will be obstructed. Similarly, use in a building will generally be limited.
• until 2002, the DoD distorted data for civilian use so that it might be off by hundreds of yards. Now the civilian signals are also precise.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4