DC Government will be Watching You

Fifty Two Hundred cameras, all strategically located in the Nation's Capitol, will be connected and available to DC government officials for Homeland Security purposes. That was the announcement Tuesday from Mayor Fenty and the Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Darrel Darnell.

ACLU spokesman Art Spitzer immediately called the plan "outrageous", in a phone conversation with this reporter.

Mayor Fenty said "it will provide decision makers with a more efficient and effective source of video information, both for day to day monitoring as well as during emergencies".

Darnell added, Our guidelines will ensure that cameras are installed at locations based on public safety needs, that the system is used only for the purpose of enhanced situational awareness and not for other labor or employee performance reasons.

He added that safeguards will be in place to prevent improper access to the images captured on the 52 hundred cameras which will be available 24/7.

The effort will be called the Video Interoperability for Public Safety program or (VIPS).