Say cheese to the police cameras!

If you’re in China, authorities can see you reading this blog. (Photo: The Perpetual Line-Up)

Let’s map out a typical day for an average cog in the system (i.e. a middle-class worker). You grab a coffee from your favorite café, stop by your local bank to withdraw money, head to work, and buy groceries at your neighborhood store on your way home.

What if I told you that closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras today can track your entire route? Where you shop, where you work, where you study, where you live–whether or not you have a criminal record.

Surveillance technology has advanced so much that even a caveman today could leave a digital footprint.

Glued to the CCTV

Street cameras are now being used by police and private companies all over the world, mainly for protection purposes. 

CCTV cameras today can now employ facial recognition technology (FRT), shoot in 4K, and record 360° views. Drone deployment has only grown in the US, with these mobile cams only weighing less than a kilogram. Not to mention the technical capability to track 100 individuals simultaneously with wide-area motion imagery (WAMI).

With an estimated number of 1 billion surveillance cameras in the entire world, it begs the question as to whether police cameras are truly in place to serve and protect. 

Over the years, CCTV cameras have been used in police investigations to solve crimes, tracking down every kind of evil-doer from drunk drivers and bank robbers to bombers and serial killers. Studies have also shown that CCTV cameras can reduce crimes by 50% and can deter burglars. 

These tracking capabilities produce astonishing results, especially when used for the greater good. But what happens when this kind of technology is weaponized against an ordinary citizen?

Caught on camera

If technology aims to optimize its best practices, it’s fair to assume that it can also automate its worst. Imagine racial profiling and selective policing operating 24/7, at 30 frames per second, with real-time reporting. That's whack. 

Sure, FRT has been used 22,000 times in New York City crime investigations. But whether these cases led to lawful and accurate arrests is another thing. NYC—being a highly diverse city—faces the greatest risk of discriminatory monitoring and invasive FRT. Research has shown that the higher the proportion of non-white residents in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, the higher the concentration of FRT-compatible CCTV cameras.

The government’s use of FRT disproportionately affects African American, Hispanic, and Asian communities; these groups are more likely to be misidentified and so falsely arrested. But if we’re talking intrusive, then we have to talk about the omnipresent creature that is China.

“Now all of China knows you’re here”

Over half of the world’s CCTV cameras are deployed in China. But the most impressive (and scariest) thing about this Asian country’s surveillance is not just its volume of cameras, but the capacity of its database. 

Fujian, a single province of China, possesses a surveillance database that can store up to 2.52 billion FRT-generated images at any given time. That’s three times more than the United States’ biggest FRT database, Homeland Security. And these databases don’t just contain faces, they can contain a person’s national ID number, name, sex, and permanent address. 

There’s no stopping the likes of China, with its ambition to collect and centralize vast amounts of data to maintain authoritarian rule over the entire population. There’s already a call for a ban on Chinese CCTV cameras deployed in Western regions.

But it seems China’s influence has rubbed off on other countries all over the world, as FRT-compatible CCTV technology has found its way to retail stores in Australia, malls in the United Kingdom, and subways in Brazil.

At this rate, the Philippines is likely to follow suit. The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has urged local government units to enact a “no CCTV, no business permit” policy for public and private establishments. On the other hand, some LGUs have decided to take matters into their own hands by searching for P200 million to P451 million in funding to launch city-wide CCTV camera system projects. 

Those numbers don’t bode well for a country that is neck-deep in debt.

Pull the plug?

I can’t remember the last time I was in trouble and thought, “You know who could help? The police!”

To be quite frank, our country's police forces have given me no valid reason to trust them with my life—let alone my personal information. 

While I am in awe of what surveillance tech has achieved in terms of crime-solving all over the world, I do hold out for those wrongfully accused and monitored. And ordinary citizens like you and me are soon to follow. 

The jury is out on whether FRT and CCTV tech is doing more harm than good. But have no fear, you are never alone. The police are always watching.