Coming soon to a public transit bus near you: audio and video surveillance

[thewayne]

The beloved Department of Homeland Security is providing grants to help municipalities equip public transit buses, and in the case of San Francisco, vintage trolleys, with video surveillance. But they're also installing microphones throughout the vehicle, including one outside, so they can get synchronized audio. Baltimore, MD considered doing this and briefly backed down when they considered that this might constitute illegal wiretap, but the city attorney said that posting warning signs should counter that.

So it's time to break out the infrared baseball caps and find a source for high frequency white noise generators.

Speaking of which, Hawaii 5-0 last week based their story around the concept of bank robbers with IR LED's sewn in to their clothing to defeat surveillance cameras. And the crime lab tech called it "high tech". I can go to Radio Shack and buy the components for probably $5 to do it, all you need is an IR LED, a diode, a resistor, a battery, and you're set. High tech? Yeah, right.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/12/public-bus-audio-surveillance/

Comments

[silveradept]

Well, as I recall, it was a whistle in a cereal box that exposed the telephone system to being manipulated. I'm fairly certain that we can fund a similar solution to make something else appear... "I thought for a while, I would pretend I was one if those deaf-mutes" comes to mind as an immediate target to shoot for. Bonuses if it can be made to animate.