surveillance

due to the sudden bad weather, the cctv walk has been postponed until further notice.

sorry for any inconvenience.

In early December, the City of Calgary started the process of installing their new Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) surveillance system. 22 cameras are planned for the city's east end. This program of indiscriminate surveillance should be of concern to all Calgarians who are concerned about their privacy.

On Friday, December 12, ABC Calgary will be hosting a camera-spotting walk as part of its "Camera-Free Calgary" campaign. It will be a leisurely saunter around the east end to find, identify and map each of the city's new surveillance cameras. We believe that it is important that Calgarians know exactly where these cameras are and where they are pointed... and if the CPS won't divulge this information, then we just have to go out and find it out ourselves.

What: An evening of CCTV camera spotting and leisurely walking
When: Friday, December 12th. 7:00 pm
Where: Northeast corner of Olympic Plaza (across the street from the library)
Why: To find and map Calgary's new CCTV cameras

This event is planned to take about an hour and there will be a lot of walking: wear comfortable shoes and dress warmly.

the city of calgary is currently in the process of installing closed circuit cameras (cctvs) in the east downtown area. the deployment is currently in "phase one" according to city hall.

city hall has also implied that they do not intend to disclose the exact locations of the cctvs. we are not yet sure if keeping the location of cctvs secret is a deliberate tactic, or merely bureaucratic incompetence.

a total of 22 cameras are slated to be installed in the east village, east downtown river area and east stephen avenue mall zone.

number of surveillance cameras the city of calgary plans to install as a pilot project to help "reduce crime"	24
estimated cost of this pilot project to calgary taxpayers, in dollars	500,000
rank of britain amongst the 'most surveilled nations in the world' according to privacy international	1
number of times the average londoner is photographed by a closed circuit tv (cctv) surveillance camera in one day	300
number of britons for every cctv camera in that country	14
year in which the british home office commissioned the "gill report" to study the effectiveness of cctv's in reducing crime	2007
number of the 13 sample areas studied in the gill report that showed a decrease in crime	6
number of those decreases in crime that was deemed to be statistically significant and attributable to cctvs	1
number of the 13 sample areas studied in the gill report that showed a increase in crime	7
number of police surveillance cameras installed by san francisco in 2006 to help "reduce the murder rate" in that city	68
cost to taxpayers of the san francisco surveillance camera program, in us dollars	900,000
number of convictions secured by surveillance camera footage in san francisco since 2006	1
number of those convictions that was for a homicide	0
year with the highest homicide rate in san francisco's history	2007
maximum reduction in crime possible by the installation of cctvs in britain, according to a 2005 Narco study, in percent	5
maximum reduction in crime possible by the installation of better street lighting, according to the same Narco study	20