Minneapolis Surveillance Camera Project

Minneapolis Surveillance Camera Project

Intro:

How Watched Are We?

To what extent are pedestrians in downtown Minneapolis monitored on surveillance cameras? Are most of the downtown cameras owned by the city or private businesses? Is the footage from these cameras recorded or just viewed? How long are the recordings kept? Who has access to the public camera footage?


The Minneapolis Surveillance Camera Project exists to answer these questions. Working with a shoestring budget, and a lot of very dedicated volunteers were working to inventory all the security cameras that record public spaces within the downtown area. Anyone is free to help out, just report any cameras you see that aren't on our list.



Why Are You Doing This?


This project's aim is only to answer the factual questions above. We do not intend to actively campaign for or against cameras watching public spaces -- indeed one of the project's volunteers owns surveillance cameras that catch public space in their field of view.


Comments: Site is neutral on surveillance cameras. I'm ok with them. Where I work (100 Washington) has few reported cameras.

Earlier Newsweek article: Big Brother's Big Business