Camera Shy Worry About Google Steetview While Forgetting About All Of Those Other Cameras

A Chicago Police
video camera
with gunshot
detector

People paranoid about images of them being snapped by Google Street View forget that there are tons of other cameras out there taking real-time pictures at any given second.

News that Chicago Google Street View images are available has some people in the area worried that they've been caught on camera, according to a CBS 2 News report. See below.



Google Street View team pays cash
at the Indiana Toll Road's Westpoint Plaza ( I-90 )

The Google Street View team might be coming to a neighborhood near you soon.

The Google Street View car's driver can be seen paying a toll with cash after driving into Indiana on the Indiana Toll Road ( I-90 ).

Here's another view of the Google Street View car driving across the state line on Ridge Road from Lansing to Munster.

From police cameras mounted on telephone poles watching over neighborhoods to traffic cameras to all sorts of private security cameras that view street scenes, people wandering around outside need to realize that they have no reasonable expectation of privacy.

Chicago's Police cameras are very sophisticated, if a New York Times report about Chicago's police camera network is to be believed.

Sophisticated new computer programs will immediately alert the police whenever anyone viewed by any of the cameras placed at buildings and other structures considered terrorist targets wanders aimlessly in circles, lingers outside a public building, pulls a car onto the shoulder of a highway, or leaves a package and walks away from it. Images of those people will be highlighted in color at the city's central monitoring station, allowing dispatchers to send police officers to the scene immediately.

Officials here designed the system after studying the video surveillance network in London, which became a world leader in this technology during the period when Irish terrorists were active. The Chicago officials also studied systems used in Las Vegas casinos, as well as those used by Army combat units. The system they have devised, they say, will be the most sophisticated in the United States and perhaps the world.

Google Street View isn't actively keeping an eye out on a neighborhood, but is only capturing a slice in time while other systems are actively watching. And, those cameras might not just recording images, but using information to keep track of what people are doing.

The Chicago Police Department has vehicles that can automatically scan thousands of license plates per hour looking for stolen vehicles while driving around.

Two vehicles, including the new "Concept Vehicle" that was implemented in cooperation with the Department of Fleet Management, now have Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) that are capable of scanning thousands of license plates per hour and immediately identifying stolen vehicles.

We're already being photographed where ever we go, so a Google Street View picture is just one of many that may have captured us walking or driving on the street. It's a 1/350 of a second slice of time.

Make sure to wave at all of the cameras out there while driving around Northwest Indiana and Chicago -- including all those i-Zoom and I-PASS cameras on the Indiana Toll Road and Illinois Tollways, Illinois DOT photo enforcement vans taking pictures of speeders on the Tri-State Expressway ( I-294 ), the Gary Police video camera at 5th and Broadway, and all of the countless other video cameras pointed as us by private entities.

Smile while remembering that Chicago's police cameras are some of the most sophisticated in the world!

Google Street View video announcing Chicago images


Gary's Glen Park street scenes captured on video

Will New I-Zoom Signage Reduce Toll Road Confusion?

Will nifty looking electronic signs make it easier for motorists to locate I-Zoom lanes on the Indiana Toll Road?

When electronic tolling in the form of EZ-Pass came to the Indiana Toll Road earlier this year, some motorists were confused by the new system and tried to pass through various toll barriers without I-Zoom or I-PASS transponders.

I personally wonder if some of the "confusion" wasn't "testing" to see if motorists could pass through the automated lanes without paying.

Let's hope that the new electronic signs announcing I-Zoom lanes make it easier for Indiana, Illinois, and other motorists traveling on the Indiana Toll Road to figure out which lane to choose.

Indiana Toll Road I-Zoom I-PASS electronic toll collection transponder electronic signage