Spy cameras to catch car thieves and burglars are being installed along the sleepy streets of a wealthy Florida village to photograph the license plates and faces of every driver motoring through town.
Civil libertarians say such use of hidden cameras in the community of Manalapan, 15 miles east of West Palm Beach on Hypoluxo Island, is a gross invasion of privacy that likely will spread elsewhere.
Manalapan city and police officials said yesterday the $60,000 technology is needed to protect its 500 residential and seasonal visitors and is a response to three burglaries last winter that netted a total of $400,000 in stolen jewelry.
“We see it as a crime-solving tool,” Manalapan Police Chief Clay Walker said. “We believe it is pretty harmless and we are not asking for blind faith, but the residents feel good that this technology will help us as a tool to solve crimes and protect them.”
The Town Council has approved the use of the cameras, with the first set of three cameras to be deployed on a street in a heavily traveled neighborhood. Cameras will be installed later on A1A Scenic and Historic Coastal Highway, which hugs the Atlantic all the way down to Key West.
An infrared camera will capture license tag information and run it through a state computer database to check whether the car is stolen. The information will be retained for three months to investigate other crimes.
Another hidden camera is aimed in the “general direction” of the driver’s face, and a third camera will capture a panoramic view. If the car has been reported stolen, an instant alarm will be sent to police dispatchers and verified, Chief Walker said.
The American Civil Liberties Union says such spyware and data-mining technology have advanced to the point where vast amounts of private information on U.S. citizens can be searched and analyzed within seconds.
“This is actually, exactly, the scenarios we have been suggesting could happen for years and people told us we were being paranoid,” said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU’s science and technology policy.
“The technology has turned the paranoid into reality,” Mr. Steinhardt said.
Bob Barr, 21st Century Liberties chairman for Freedom and Privacy at the American Conservative Union, called the surveillance “un-American” and a “gross overreaction.”
“I’m sure as heck never going to go there,” Mr. Barr said. “How any public official in the United States of America can say this and still consider themselves citizens of a free country is ridiculous,” said Mr. Barr, a former Republican congressman from Georgia.
Gregory Dunham, Manalapan town manager, said the cameras are pointed at public streets and that the city’s legal staff has determined that the camera system and database searches are legal.
“People don’t have an expectation of privacy on the outside of their vehicles on a public street, and we will not be taking pictures inside the trunk or glove department,” Mr. Dunham said.
Mr. Barr called the rationale “the height of arrogance” to “treat the roads as personal property” and to photograph and run license checks to sort out criminals from innocent travelers.
Mr. Walker denied Florida news reports that facial recognition technology will be used on photographs of the drivers or that background checks will be conducted. The database containing the tag information is also available to the public, he said.
Mr. Dunham said the town has received calls from officials in private communities in California, Colorado and North Carolina wanting to know how to get such a background check and camera systems using facial recognition.
The cameras are designed to identify humans through biometrics when they pass by the field of view and to compare with more than 300,000 mug shots of wanted criminals. Police in Virginia Beach use the technology, which is also installed but has not been used in the District.
Mr. Barr said the Florida camera project is in keeping with the post-September 11 surveillance state.
“So many people in government view us as suspects and possible criminals until you have proven you are not,” he said.
“If they put this forward, it will set a precedent … and other cities will want it. I hope someone nips it in the bud down there,” Mr. Barr said.
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