August 1, 2002

12:43 PM

Say Cheese!The LAPD has installed motion sensing spy cameras in back alleys to catch graffiti artists, trash dumpers, and, well, anyone they want, including I'm sure, corrupt police offers delivering beatdowns. "Stop! This is the LAPD," the recording says. "We have just taken your photograph. We will use this photograph to prosecute you. Leave now."
posted by xmutex (16 comments total)

Combine this with The Hyper-Sonic Sound System (HSS)--NOW we're talkin' cool.
posted by magnificentsven at 12:48 PM on August 1, 2002

I am really going to have to look into buying a house in the Italian wine country soon.
posted by Irontom at 12:50 PM on August 1, 2002

i'm thinking British Columbia. i hear it's quite nice up there.
posted by aLienated at 1:02 PM on August 1, 2002

Anything that gets rid of graffiti is a good thing.

Well maybe not this, but almost.
posted by evanizer at 1:05 PM on August 1, 2002

I think they could have come up with a better recording. Hows about combining this feature with a kind of Candid Camera show? The recording could blurt out a request for crack, solicitation for prostitution, or a person's Miranda Rights, and living rooms across the country could giggle at the surprised looks on the alleged perp's faces.
posted by adampsyche at 1:09 PM on August 1, 2002

I sometimes park my car (when I'm working downtown) in a commuter rail lot that is near a middle school. The middle school, I'm presuming, is the source of the fairly regular series of smashed windows and rifled cars that I see when getting off the train. The rail system is not liable; it's open to the public; and there's clearly no money for a full-time security guard at $1/day. The police apparently swing through occasionally but who knows when?

I long for a video camera in that lot.
posted by dhartung at 1:11 PM on August 1, 2002

I long for a video camera in that lot.
it'd be stolen.
posted by quonsar at 1:14 PM on August 1, 2002

Ok, it can withstand a bullet, but can it withstand someone spray painting the lens? Seems like kinda a waste of money to me...
posted by statusquo at 1:19 PM on August 1, 2002

guess the graffiti artists will have to start wearing masks now.
posted by tolkhan at 1:21 PM on August 1, 2002

tolkhan, they already do.
posted by hilker at 2:21 PM on August 1, 2002

I can think of places in Los Angeles that need surveillance cameras a lot more than back alleys. Like the poorly-lit residential street I live on in Koreatown, where I was mugged in front of the gate to my building last year.
posted by bingo at 2:29 PM on August 1, 2002

then what good are the cameras going to be?
posted by tolkhan at 2:35 PM on August 1, 2002

graffiti brightens my days. thank god somebody is doing something interesting in the world.
posted by goneill at 2:41 PM on August 1, 2002

Eventually masks will be the number-one criminal accessory, replacing gloves. Anyone who wants to make a lot of money will invent a cheap, disposable face mask or spray that blurs your face to video cameras but looks passable in everyday situations. Kind of like those plastic things people put on their car license plates for red-light cams.
posted by cell divide at 2:45 PM on August 1, 2002

I think they could have come up with a better recording.

Me too.
posted by chuq at 3:19 PM on August 1, 2002

cell divide, where can i get one of those license plate things?
posted by bingo at 1:22 PM on August 2, 2002