According to some citizens of Oakland, Big Brother is taking up residence in their city. Yesterday the Oakland City Council voted unanimously to accept a federal grant of $2.2 million dollars that will pave the way for a contentious new project, a city-wide surveillance center.
The Domain Awareness Center will coordinate and synchronize real-time information, including video camera footage, gunshot detectors, social media feeds, crime maps, and license plate readers, with public safety dispatch systems in order to assist local police forces and cut down response times. Critics of the project, including representatives from the ACLU, believe the project is too wide-reaching to be trusted without a written and enforceable privacy policy in place.
The Bay Area city has long been beleaguered by crime, with murder and violent crime rates steadily increasing as budget constraints have decimated the size of the city’s police force. City leaders believe that the Domain Awareness Center will help save lives.
Read the full article at the San Francisco Gate.