DHS to install microphones on city streets

"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself--anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face...; was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime..."..
- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 5

The Police State
Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress work together to fund a 1984 spy system that listens to your private conversations

• And a brain-dead American people ignore all warning and change the channel to the newest episodes of the Slut Housewives of New Jersey or Hillbilly Handfishin'.

The Department of Homeland Security is looking to install “gunshot detector” microphones that are capable of listening to conversations throughout “urban areas” of Washington, DC.

According to a Request for Information (RFI) posted on the FedBizOpps website on January 18 (PDF), the DHS, in tandem with the Secret Service, “Is seeking information on commercially available gunshot detection technologies for fixed site surveillance applications. Typical coverage areas are expected to be from 10s to 100s of acres per site, located within urban areas. Due to the secure nature of these sites, a high gunshot detection rate (>95%) is strongly desired while daily, operational monitoring of the system by external parties is undesirable.”

 .

Note that the location of the surveillance system will be in “urban areas,” and will cover hundreds of acres per each unit, meaning the detection technologies are not merely being prepared for sensitive areas around the White House or the Capitol building reports Infowars News.

The RFI lists a number of questions potential contractors are required to answer, including whether sensors could be placed to “aesthetically match their surroundings,” and whether the system can be, “integrated to communicate with other detection systems.”

 .

The DHS asks potential contractors to respond to the request for information by February 18. A five-year contract is on offer to the company which demonstrates, “the best overall value to the Government.”

 .

While the systems are touted as “gunshot detectors,” as the New York Times reported in May 2012, similar technology is already installed in over 70 cities around the country, and in some cases it is being used to listen to conversations.

 .

“In at least one city, New Bedford, Mass., where sensors recorded a loud street argument that accompanied a fatal shooting in December, the system has raised questions about privacy and the reach of police surveillance, even in the service of reducing gun violence,” states the report

.
Frank Camera, the lawyer for Jonathan Flores, a man charged with murder, complained that the technology is “opening up a whole can of worms.”

 .

“If the police are utilizing these conversations, then the issue is, where does it stop?” he said.
.

This led the ACLU to warn that the technology could represent a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment if misused.

Big Brother Spy Street Lights Listen to you talk.
A Federal program that is fully funded by both the Republican House and Democrat Senate.  It is a myth that the US has two political parties that oppose each other.

Street lamps spying you

A Police State is a happy and safe state.
Big Brother is listening to your conversations.

The ACLU’s Jay Stanley asked, “whether microphones can be remotely activated by police who want to listen to nearby conversations,” noting that it was illegal for police “to make audio recordings of conversations in which they are not a participant without a warrant.”

 .

“If the courts start allowing recordings of conversations picked up by these devices to be admitted as evidence, then it will provide an additional incentive to the police to install microphones in our public spaces, over and above what is justified by the level of effectiveness the technology proves to have in pinpointing gun shots,” wrote Stanley.

 .

Given the fact that the system costs, “$200,000 to $250,000 per square mile of coverage to install,” according to a separate NY Times report, the DHS’ plan to cover hundreds of acres with each system is likely to run up huge costs.

 .

As we have previously highlighted, numerous major cities are currently being fitted with Intellistreets ‘smart’ street lighting systems that also have the capability of recording conversations and sending them directly to authorities via wi-fi.

(Infowars News)

On the wall outside his former residence - flat number 27B - where George Orwell lived until his death in 1950, an historical plaque commemorates the anti-authoritarian author. And within 200 yards of the flat, there are 32 CCTV cameras, scanning every move.

Orwell's view of the tree-filled gardens outside the flat is under 24-hour surveillance from two cameras perched on traffic lights.

The flat's rear windows are constantly viewed from two more security cameras outside a conference centre in Canonbury Place.

In a lane, just off the square, close to Orwell's favourite pub, the Compton Arms, a camera at the rear of a car dealership records every person entering or leaving the pub.

Within a 200-yard radius of the flat, there are another 28 CCTV cameras, together with hundreds of private, remote-controlled security cameras used to scrutinise visitors to homes, shops and offices.