Like a lot of other large cities, San Francisco has a series of security cameras watching some of the tougher street corners.
If you’re going to spend tax-payer money on security cameras, knowing they won’t be the most popular thing you’ll do, at least make sure they work well.
How well do they work?
Very poorly, with sometimes up to 10 seconds passing between frames, and its grainy.
How much did it cost?
Roughly $900k.
According to an report by the San Francisco Chronicle, the 2 1/2 year old surveillance program “has contributed to just one arrest in a city where the homicide total in 2007 hit a 12-year high. That lone arrest was more than 19 months ago.”
The city’s Department of Telecommunications and Information Services, the department that operates the cameras, says “the city’s cameras achieve only 80 percent of the resolution they are capable of, and that they generate, at best, two to four frames per second because the city lacks data storage space to accommodate more footage.”
So much for making you feel secure.
In contrast, Chicago maintains 550 cameras and “get motion-picture-quality footage shot at 30 frames per second.”
Check out the full story here if you’re interested.
[Via Engadget]
