Miami Police are moving forward with intentions to put hundreds of new security cameras in public places throughout the Miami metropolitan area, in an effort to help fight crime. This is the latest development in a controversial trend toward major cities employing surveillance in public areas as an anti-crime tactic.
The use of cameras has been a hot-button issue in recent times. Though mounted cameras were largely responsible for authorities identifying the suspects in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, police security camera technology has attracted some criticism for its tendency to falsely identify sounds as gunfire at times, and the potentially invasive nature of facial-recognition technology.
The cameras would be placed variously on rooftops, street poles, and already existing red light cameras (another controversial subject covered previously on this blog). The new system will cost roughly $700,000, but federal anti-terrorism dollars would cover half of the expenses, sources say.
The Miami surveillance system will include the use of ShotSpotter, a network of GPS signals and censors placed on rooftops in critical areas. The ShotSpotter is designed to alert police to the sound of gunfire; when three of its sensors detect impulses of noise, the ShotSpotter technology can pinpoint within ten meters of where the noise is coming from. However, even some law enforcement agencies criticized the technology’s tendency to produce false positives of gunfire sounds.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has already weighed in against the plans to use cameras in Miami. Howard Simon, executive director at the ACLU of Florida, pointed out that similar plans failed in Oakland and Tampa, Florida. Simon claims ACLU complaints and a high rate of false positives led to the dismantling of Tampa’s facial recognition system.
“The claim that out in public you have a reduced expectation of privacy is an abused standard by police,” Simon asserted.
Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa defended the plans to install cameras, claiming it will help the city fight crime. “Some of these cameras will be attached next to the ShotSpotter so that the shots go out, we put the camera on and we see exactly what’s going on.”
The fate of surveillance cameras in South Florida is not yet decided, and if they do go up in Miami, the ramifications of their use in criminal proceedings will be complex. At Gilbert and Smallman, no subtleties, however small, are lost on our trial attorneys—every resource available to aid a client’s defense will be employed to its full potential. If you are seeking a Miami criminal defense attorney who knows the ins and outs of the law and will fight for your rights, contact Gilbert and Smallman to get an experienced attorney on the case!
