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(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick

Mon, May 23rd 2005 10:03am





Expensive Police Spy Camera Vans Just For Show

from the just-'cause dept

Bob Dole writes "The police in Sussex, England purchased a set of expensive CCTV spy camera vans a year and a half ago. According to an inside source, "The bottom line is that we drive around in them to give the impression they are actively recording but they are most certainly not being used for the purpose they were designed." Apparently, they spent US $460,000 to buy the vans but have nobody trained to use them. Every officer put into the lengthy training cycle is pulled off of the streets where real crimes are solved and prevented. Even the cops know it's dumb to have the majority of their bobbies spend all day long zooming in on boobies. So why'd they buy the vans in the first place? Solving crime is hard. Wasting taxpayer money buying a camera to say you're "cracking down" on crime is easy." To be fair, the police point out that the vans still do serve the purpose of deterrence, as they're highly visible. However, to hear that most don't have any tapes, and some don't even have cameras (they fell off), seems like a fairly expensive waste.

3 Comments | Leave a Comment

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  1.  
    identicon
    sniggles, May 23rd, 2005 @ 10:15am

    Ah, the panopticon school of thought.

    If they're going to waste money on show-enforcement, they should waste more and hire folks on the dole to drive them around, thus allowing the coppers back on the beat.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    icon
    Mike (profile), May 23rd, 2005 @ 10:33am

    Re: Ah, the panopticon school of thought.

    In fact, some cities are having non-cops drive around in police cars to get people to drive slower...

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    www.mygadgetbag.com, May 23rd, 2005 @ 3:12pm

    Re: Ah, the panopticon school of thought.

    Wow, this just seems wrong, and a complete waste of money.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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