Here's a bit of our initial findings regarding police surveillance in the city. This is a purely technical and photographic synopsis, we will be trying to get some of the video material we shot talking to people about the cameras up soon. We're also hoping to do some sort of google-map overview of the locations we plotted so far.
From what we could tell, there are at least 3 separate networks of police surveillance cameras in the city.
this kind(long and boxy) are cctv run by the baltimore downtown partnership:
flickr.com/photos/45891628@N00/32294221/
the dome-like cameras:
flickr.com/photos/45891628@N00/32294164/in/set-718967/
are newer, and were installed this year with homeland security money. this network largely overlaps with the previously mentioned one, but the cameras are much fancier(if you look into the dome you can see the cameras moving about)
these are the ones discussed here:
baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/10787/index.php
as being purchased from an israeli security company. these also may have limited visual AI, according to the article.
check this out for an example of gratuitous overlap:
flickr.com/photos/45891628@N00/32293827/in/set-718967/
then there are the new Citiwatch cameras, which are more about police control of low-income neighborhoods. These are the scary flashing ones:
flickr.com/photos/45891628@N00/32293410/in/set-718967/
flickr.com/photos/45891628@N00/32293528/in/set-718967/
in the above picture, check out what appears to be an antenna...the dome cameras are apparently on a fiber optic network. these appear to be wirelessly networked.(shame this isn't city-sponsored wireless broadband instead of surveillance)
the ones we don't know about look like this:
flickr.com/photos/45891628@N00/32293550/in/set-718967/
flickr.com/photos/45891628@N00/32293499/in/set-718967/
flickr.com/photos/45891628@N00/32293369/in/set-718967/
which we saw both in and out of downtown, with and without sirens. these are at this point a mystery to us.