The Fenty administration has proposed new standards for a consolidated spy network of more than 5,000 closed-circuit cameras that should take effect in time for the presidential inauguration in January.
The Video Interoperability for Public Safety system, or VIPS, links 5,200 District-owned closed-circuit television cameras within a single monitoring office under the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. The goal: Assist Homeland Security “to rapidly identify and respond to emergency circumstances that occur within the District.”
Every camera in a school, in a jail cell, in a government building, outside a public housing project or attached to a traffic light has been integrated into the network. The police department’s crime cameras, which require passive monitoring only, are not included.
The network, housed at the District’s Unified Communications Center, is to be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The regulations bar its use “for the purpose of infringing upon First Amendment rights,” for targeting individuals because of race, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation, or for tracking an individual’s movements.
The use of audio will be prohibited except when court orders are obtained. And any video recordings must be trashed or copied over after 10 business days except in a handful of circumstances.
The $5.1 million VIPS program, funded entirely through federal grants, was launched on an emergency basis in June to the dismay of some D.C. Council members and privacy advocates, who argued the network was unjustified and the rules lacked suitable protections for citizens.
“It’s a waste of money,” at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson said Monday. “You’re not capturing criminals by monitoring cameras in jail cells. And you’re not reducing crime by monitoring cameras in elementary schools.”
The initial set of regulations expired after 120 days. The VIPS program continues to operate today, though it is unclear under what standards.
The revised rules still do not address substantive issues of privacy and civil liberties, said Melissa Ngo, a privacy rights attorney and writer for PrivacyLives.com.
“A ubiquitous, centralized surveillance system raises a number of privacy and civil liberty risks, and the Fenty administration has failed to create regulations that would adequately protect D.C. residents and visitors from misuse or abuse of this system,” Ngo said in an e-mail.
The regulations will take effect in about 40 business days, assuming Council approval, just in time for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.
“It’s hard to make a case that we shouldn’t be as careful as we possibly can be given the inauguration of President-elect Obama,” said D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray.
