Mapping the Police State: Police Cameras, Maps, and You!

Hey folks!

Rochester Indymedia is working on putting together a detailed map of all the new police surveillance cameras that have been installed in the City of Rochester. But, we need your help!

Police Chief David Moore won't say where the cameras are except that they are being put in places "based on historical data, with the first cameras going to documented spots with high crime," according an article in the Democrat and Chronicle.

According to an R-News report, "Twelve cameras are operational now that can tilt, zoom down several blocks and pan 360 degrees." The Democrat and Chronicle backs this claim by reporting, "The cameras are bulletproof and can show clear, close-up images—such as the time on a wristwatch or the cover of a magazine—from at least one block away."

So what's wrong with police cameras anyways? Surveillance cameras are a tool of social control used by the corporate-state industrial complex. Because most laws serve the interests of people who have money and power to draft, codify, and enforce them, "almost all of the 'problems' that surveillance cameras are supposedly being used to solve — shoplifting, theft and sabotage by employees, victimless crimes such as smoking pot, panhandling and exchanging sex for money — are only problems for people who have money and power, and are in fact solutions for people who are poor and powerless. We should legalize marijuana and prostitution — we should completely solve the systemic problems called poverty, homelessness and wage slavery — well before we use surveillance cameras to enforce unjust and fundamentally discriminating laws against behavior," states the position paper On Capitalist Law by the Surveillance Camera Players of New York City.

And, what is the police strategy? Well, much like a discussion I overheard a few weeks ago in the South Wedge by two middle-aged, white folks, paraphrasing here—"Well, what needs to happen to stop crime is that we need to displace poor people out of our neighborhood completely. But those people also need jobs—so if there was some way to remove them from our neighborhood and then offer them some kind of job opportunity elsewhere, then everything would be ok!"—displacement and gentrification seem to be all the rage! Aside from the obvious racism, classism, and meanness of these sentiments, it appears that the Rochester Police Department seems to have the same idea. The Democrat and Chronicle reported that, "Ultimately, officers said, they hope the cameras will move violent crime and drug trafficking out of Rochester altogether." Forget the systemic causes of drug trafficking and violent crime and evaluating those causes and finding real solutions—let's just push it out of the city and into other communities!

This is funny because the police have spent millions of tax-payer dollars on 75 cameras and have made 7 drug-related arrests—not convictions—arrests. And with Zero Tolerance, you can pretty much be arrested for anything—especially if you're a person of color, male, and visible to the public. As R-News reported, "Those monitoring them [the cameras] can radio patrol officers if they see people congregating on a corner or even if they see a drug deal." Congregating? Are you fucking kidding me? But I digress.

Folks in Rochester deserve to know where these cameras are located so they can make an informed decision as to whether they want to be monitored and recorded by police or not. A map could also facilitate engaging, creative direct action against police cameras and surveillance. You can usually spot the cameras because they are box-shaped with the RPD logo on all sides, positioned on lamp posts and at night there is a blue light that flashes. The cameras are monitored 24 hours a day by police according the R-News and Democrat and Chronicle reports.

So here's how you can help! If you know the location of a camera, please post a comment to this article and note the location of the camera by street intersections or nearest landmarks. As we get more locations, we'll post a map with them. As more camera locations come in, we'll update the map.

This will, at the very least, ensure that a map exists of police camera locations. We hope to make hard copies and distribute them city wide.

Down with police surveillance and the police state!

Love,

Rochester Indymedia

Additional Information: Hey Duffy, No More Cameras!—from rise up Rochester | Guerilla Programming of Video Surveillance | the Surveillance Camera Players: completely distrustful of all government.

Reported Camera Locations:
Monroe and Goodman
Monroe and Meigs
South and Alexander
Plymouth Ave. and Violetta St. (near Ant Hill Co-op)
Shuart and Lawrence
East side of N. Clinton between Hoeltzer and Sullivan
East side of N. Clinton just north of Avenue D
Scio and Woodward
Clinton and Lang
Joseph and Seabrook
North Goodman and Short
Mt. Hope and Gregory/Ford (at the intersection)
Dewey Ave. and Driving Park Ave.
Genesee St. and Sawyer St.
E. Main and Gibbs St.
Hudson Ave. and Mark St.
Hudson Ave. and Bernard St.
Monroe Ave. and Alexander St.
Is there a camera in your neighborhood?