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

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 (and eyes) to locate them!

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.

People in Rochester are entitled 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 the cameras. 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.

If you know the location of a camera, please leave a comment about its whereabouts by street intersections or nearest landmarks. To read the full article and see a list of verified cameras locations, click here.

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. | How to Make Maps of Camera Locations | Privacy Under the 4th Amendment | ineffectiveness of surveillance cameras | On the Transparent Society | deterrence as crazy poker game | surveillance cameras in the grand scheme of things