The ACLU of Missouri released its report “Caught in the Web of Mass Surveillance” Oct. 23, 2014. It is the product of an extensive investigation into the existing web of surveillance cameras in St. Louis, where a number of entities maintain a hodgepodge of surveillance cameras governed by a variety of internal policies or, in many cases, no policies at all.
The report is authored by John Chasnoff, the ACLU’s former program director, and includes recommendations for privacy safeguards that should be incorporated into existing camera networks and any new surveillance network development. Also included is a warning for St. Louis City to proceed with caution as it decides if it should fund the Real-Time Intelligence Center (RTIC).
“Today’s laws and policies are not keeping pace with advanced technology and, government can use that technology to intrude into our private lives,” says Jeffrey Mittman, executive director of the ACLU of Missouri. “Absent real safeguards, the loss of privacy becomes permanent.”