You can watch 50 Newark cameras for crime — and the ACLU is creeped out

NEWARK — A new citizen policing initiative has drawn criticism from the ACLU over privacy and experience concerns.

Newark Police announced their Citizen Virtual Patrol on Thursday, a pilot program that gives access via a website to 50 surveillance cameras around the city, with another 75 on the way. Panasonic, which has its North American headquarters in Newark, donated the cameras.

The department called the program "a great opportunity to interact with our residents and interact with innovating technology. We can collectively deter crime and reduce crime together."

Cell phones will soon be able to access the cameras as well.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose said the technology is aimed at making neighborhoods safer and building stronger partnerships between police and the community.

The American Civil Liberties Union's New Jersey chapter called the program "disturbing" and believes it will encourage pointing fingers at community members who may not have committed a crime.

"Newark is crowdsourcing its police force when it should be focusing on how its police department can work within the bounds of the Constitution and fulfill its obligations under the consent decree with the Justice Department. Newark should consider the consequences of communal, livestreaming mass surveillance and end it before more people are put at risk," ACLU-NJ Executive Director Amol Sinha said in a statement.

The ACLU is also concerned about the department "outsourcing policing to people who most likely haven't been trained in recognizing criminal activity or in the contours of the law."

Users of the program must register for the program using their Google, Facebook or Twitter account or their email address.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ.

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