This morning at school, a couple of contractors came into the classroom
that I was in to determine the best place to install some surveillance cameras.
They said that the purpose of the cameras was to improve school safety, and I
can see their point.
In May of 2022, the Arizona Republic published an article that
discussed the advantage of camera from the standpoint of public safety:
Four counties in Arizona are in
the process of implementing a new school safety emergency response system that
will connect law enforcement to the public and allow for faster response times.
“What our technology does, it
connects other technology like panic buttons, and door-locking mechanisms and
cameras and things like that really give law enforcement that critical
information needed to respond and puts it directly in the hands of law
enforcement,” explained Chrissie Coon, the Chief Strategy Officer of Mutualink.
Mutualink was born out of the
communication challenges from 9/11 that first responders had; now, their
technology can be used in any public emergency. In recent years, they started
seeing the need for it to be used in schools.
School staff and teachers can
use the app on their phones, which has a panic button. “They get direct
push-to-talk communication with law enforcement. Instead of picking up the
phone, dialing 911 and trying to get through that way,” Coon said.
When the panic button is pushed,
an alert is sent to the 911 dispatch center, letting them know where the
emergency is and what is going on. Dispatchers will then get automatic access
to the school’s surveillance cameras and a map of the school layout.
“On the school side, the school
teachers and staff are able then to use their phones — almost like a
walkie-talkie — and just be able to have push-to-talk communication directly
with law enforcement who is coming to the scene,” Coon said.
This system is already being
used in several other states, like Florida. Eight counties in Arizona have the
funding through legislation to use Mutualink. Four of them are currently in the
process of putting it into effect by the upcoming school year in the fall.
“In an urban setting, we’re
looking to save seconds here, we’re looking to save minutes, and if we can save
minutes on any little thing, it’s very valuable to us,” said Navajo County
Sheriff David Clouse.
Despite their obvious safety advantages, cameras in classrooms
DO have some disadvantages. In 2021, failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake
came out in favor of cameras because they would allow administrators (and parents)
to guarantee that teachers weren’t teaching critical race theory, or assigning banned
books.
Arizona, of course, not the only state that has nutty politicians.
In Florida, teachers can now be fined it they have banned
books visible on their classroom shelves.
Sone pundits have said that Florida is like Germany in the 1930’s,
but with amusement parks.
She did not get elected – but still has not conceded to the
actual winner, Democratic governor Katie Hobbs.
https://kjzz.org/content/1739168/gov-ducey-criticizes-kari-lakes-idea-put-cameras-classrooms
Gov.
Doug Ducey criticized gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s proposal to put
cameras into classrooms Tuesday, saying it could lead to predators monitoring
children.
The
former TV news anchor suggested the idea of putting cameras in classrooms to
monitor teachers to make sure they are sticking to the curriculum. Her idea
would allow parents to access the videos.
Ducey
says while engaged parents are good for students, there are better ways to
promote transparency in the classroom.
"Parents
are welcome to participate of course in their child's education. There's no
bigger force multiplier than a good school along with an involved parent. But
we want to do it through transparency in the curriculum," he said.
Ducey
added that he’ll seek legislation to achieve that starting in January but did
not provide specific details.
If you’ve
read George Orwell's “1984”, you are aware that one of the main characters Big Brother, who is
watching everybody.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(Nineteen_Eighty-Four)
However,
the fact remains that we are already at that point.
Although
China DOES have a lot of cameras, the United States is a world leader when it
comes to cameras per capita.
https://aithority.com/news/top-10-countries-and-cities-by-number-of-cctv-cameras/
China has at least 200
million cameras installed in the country. This is the nation with the most
significant number of cameras installed for surveillance in the world. However,
China is not alone; other countries such as the United States and Germany have
50 million and 5.2 million CCTV Cameras each.
The list goes on with
other countries with more than 1 million cameras. The United Kingdom has 5
million CCTV cameras installed, followed by Japan with 5 million, Vietnam with
2.6 million, France with 1.65 million, South Korea with 1.03 million, and the
Netherlands with 1 million.
The United States has
15.28 CCTV cameras every 100 individuals, followed by China with 14.36 and the
United Kingdom with 7.5. Other top 10 countries include Germany with 6.27
cameras per 100 individuals, Netherlands 5.8, Australia 4, Japan 2.72, France
2.46 and South Korea 1.99.
In the
1960’s (and before) Allen Funt produced a show titled “Candid Camera”. Since you
are likely going to be on camera almost everywhere you go, you might as well
follow Funt’s advice”
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBH1PpAu9UZ0Dkn6qGqGsmg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candid_Camera
“Smile,
you’re on Candid Camera”
Wow! Lots to digest and evaluate. We are watching Person of Interest which concerns a mega computer that can access all cameras connected to any computer. Using this and the data compiled by computers it is all out there. The show is about 10 years old. To go back to a much older show. The Prisoner from the 1960s had an island community completely surveillance and controlled. I guess George Orwell led them all in nightmare prediction.
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