My proposed solutions to reducing crime are based on a very limited amount of research. Some of these ideas may have already been tried without success (unbeknownst to me) and some ideas are undoubtedly already being implemented in some areas.
I'll start by laying out the beliefs and assumptions on which my proposed solutions are based, and then the proposed solutions themselves. If you prefer, you can skip directly to the "Proposed Ways to Reduce Crime" section.
AUTHOR'S UNDERLYING BELIEFS AND ASSUMPTIONS
Cycle of Crime
The author believes there is a cycle of crime that starts when a child is born in the ghetto. Even at birth, the child's IQ might already be impaired due to fetal alcohol syndrome, drug use, environmental toxins, poor nutrition, etc. Then the child may experience unpredictable parental behavior, apathy and physical and emotional abuse, or may live in a dangerous environment with exposure to gang members who make crime look "cool" in an attempt to recruit the child, and who sneer at the idea of learning and bully or beat up anyone who doesn't talk and act like they do. The child begins to mirror this self-destructive behavior, responds poorly to school, has a poor self-image, poor social skills, poor job qualifications and reduced economic opportunity. This finally results in despair, further descent into drugs, prostitution and crime, imprisonment, more bad influences, a criminal record, prejudice and fear on the part of a potential employer who is reluctant to hire a felon, and finally, an ever worsening spiral of criminal behavior despite an initial desire on the part of the released criminal to cease from his life of crime.
Relationship Between Crime, Education and Environment
Research over the past 10 years has shown the
most effective way to reduce both crime and recidivism is by literacy training and GED, or better yet, training felons to the level of having a 2-year college or vocational school degree. This may seem surprising to some, but it gives the person some tools to actually function within society. From a purely economic point of view, lack of education produces a lack of opportunity and poverty which, in turn, breeds crime. This is supported by a wealth of statistics. Beyond economic reasoning, it also supports the idea Plato proposed long ago that real knowledge becomes, in the end, a knowledge of goodness. Or, to quote Proverbs 8:9, "[...my righteous words..]...are plain to him who understands, and right to those who find knowledge." Moral instruction has always been seen as an essential component of learning--as an easier and shorter path to "goodness" than the school of hard knocks. This instruction has traditionally come from a child's parents.
Of course, educating a criminal as part of an effort to reform him is still not as good as if the person had been educated from the time he were young and never became a criminal in the first place. But why are we unsuccessful in doing this?
Part of the reason for the lack of education is, admittedly, that
11% of schoolchildren are said to have some type of educational disability that requires them to be involved in special education programs. Often, this is an emotional disturbance (ED) problem, which falls under an umbrella of a whole host of behavioral disorders.
65% of ED students drop out of high school, and of these, 73% are arrested in 5 years. 70% of children in the juvenile justice system have ED. Students with ED are twice as likely to become parents as students with other disabilities. ED students require lots of extra attention from teachers and teachers' aides in order to progress through the school system, and they tend to disrupt the class and are often easily provoked to violent behavior. We don't know to what extent ED, like other issues such as lower IQ, is due to inherited diseases or merely the product of a child's environment. However, any optimistic approach to dealing with this problem necessitates we assume the latter.
Statistics in California show that the child from a disadvantaged background has traditionally achieved at the rate of 0.7 of a year for every year of instruction. This means that the disadvantaged child falls further and further behind, at the rate of three months for every school year. Thus, at the end of the third grade, he is already a full year behind the middle-class student and when he enters his teenage years, he is two years behind, and about to become a statistic—a dropout.
Detroit has one of the highest crime rates in the U.S. There are very few whites living in Detroit, family incomes have dropped by a third,
over half of Detroit's children live in poverty, and there was a significant flight away from Detroit schools by families who could afford to move. In the Detroit school system, 65% of students drop out of high school, which seems to imply that all the students have ED--although this might indeed be telling us that ED is often the result of living in a dangerous ghetto neighborhood without a stable, supportive home life. Moreover, labeling kids as "ED"--as if it were some type of incurable disease--and putti
ng them in Special Ed programs still doesn't appear to be solving the problem.
A map of crime in any city or county will tend to show crime hot spots where the disintegration of family is nearly complete, where unemployment is the norm, where good role models are nonexistent, and where the culture of crime is so well established that children born into this environment have an extraordinarily high likelihood of becoming a criminal. They don't have a chance. And like a cancer, these areas slowly metastasize, claiming one neighborhood after another. It only takes one or two criminals to terrorize a neighborhood and intimidate its residents to the extent they may not even report crimes in progress.
Government efforts to give these disadvantaged kids a boost at a very early age are admirable and do some good, but are generally unsuccessful because they do not continue beyond kindergarten. Head-start programs cost on average $9000 per pre-schooler, exceeding the average cost per year in a K-12 school. While the program may help parenting skills, the overall positive affect on the child appears to disappear
by the end of the first grade. It does not raise IQ and it does not improve kids' readiness for later reading and math instruction once they start school. Somewhat ironically, many critics argue that the money would benefit children more if it were actually used to give them additional class time at a later age such as during high school.
There is hope, however. This article discusses characteristics and examples of successful charter schools that are actually getting impressive results, even for kids from the ghetto. The schools teach teens how to act according to traditional, middle-class values, set and enforce exacting academic standards, and closely supervise student behavior, at the same time striving to be warm, caring places, where teachers and principals form paternal-like bonds with students. The new paternalistic schools are the most promising means yet for closing the nation's costly and shameful achievement gap. They teach appropriate behaviors that are practically second nature to children with nurturing families and good peer relationships. Extended hours and even boarding of students during the week are a common thread. Any program that increases the proportion of time a student spends in a positive environment and reduces the time spent in a bad environment clearly helps, not to mention the effect of increased learning time.
There is a great deal of controversy about the extent to which violent video games make people more aggressive, and therefore more inclined to violent crime. Some studies would seem to show incontrovertible evidence of cause and effect. Others point to a seemingly small correlation between a single session of playing a violent video game and subsequent measured level of aggression, and poo poo the effect. Here is a good article that fairly represents both sides of the argument. My own opinion is that violent video game playing does promote aggressive behavior and, ultimately, crime. I believe most research up to now has ignored the cumulative effect of video game playing--it's like saying the hypothesis "smoking causes cancer" is inconclusive and therefore not credible based on a study where you smoked only two cigarettes one time and you only coughed a couple times afterwards and otherwise felt relaxed--so actually, smoking makes you relaxed, so how can it be bad for your health? Most of the video game studies used college students who were mature enough to have a well developed sense of right and wrong (and real versus imaginary) instead of using young impressionable kids from the ghetto. Anyway it begs further study. Here is another article that does suggest a cumulative effect from video game play. Aside from statistical results, the realistic renderings of humans, blood and gore etc. taps into the very same primitive attraction to sadism and blood lust that people had when they went to the Roman arena. In the author's opinion, this is the only possible explanation for why these games were created this way. These games could just have easily have used non-human forms or less detailed and less violent depictions without affecting the game play itself in the least. We know that if we imagine we are doing an activity--good or bad--it eventually makes it easier to do in real life, and video gaming is even more real than a daydream. There is a reason--beyond exploitation and abuse of children--that selling child pornography is illegal, and the same reasoning should apply to video games. It may be years before video games are conclusively fingered as contributing to violence, just as it was many years before smoking was clearly and conclusively recognized as being bad for one's health. In the mean time, lobbying efforts and company-sponsored "research" can really be effective at purposely muddying the waters and questioning a study's conclusions.
Punishment, Rehabilitation and Monitoring
Prison keeps criminals off the streets for a time, but it has very limited effectiveness in terms of reforming criminals (and may even exacerbate the problem) for the following reasons, some of which are taken from this source.
---It teaches survival skills (violence, retaliation, dominance, etc.) that are the opposite to what is needed to thrive in the civilized world.
---It shields the felon from shame and remorse, and instead gives him a sense of defiance and solidarity with his fellow inmates. It's a school for crime, where criminals are merely exposed to even worse attitudes and influences and come out worse criminals than when they entered.
---88% of offenders (Chicago statistics) have a prior arrest history; meaning recidivist offenders are responsible for the majority of crimes, implying that either prison rehab programs are not successfully rehabilitating criminals or prison release programs are not adequately preparing them for society...or both.
---The likelihood of being caught and imprisoned is perceived to be relatively low. Research has shown that criminals typically judge "certainty" with a much higher weighting than "severity" or "length" when considering the consequences of bad behavior.
---Over 40% of prison inmates are functionally illiterate and are less likely to be rational and weigh consequences. This is borne out by the fact that the national re-arrest rate is 63% (84% for juveniles), and most have a history of multiple arrests and convictions.
---The majority of crimes of inmates were behavioral, personality or addiction problems resulting in irrational acts--crimes for which incarceration has NOT been shown to be an effective deterrent.
---In some cases an inmate may actually see prison as more comfortable, cushy, predictable and structured than the miserable life he has experienced on the outside, especially if he is not equipped to cope and function in the real world.
---62% of prisoners are in prison for non-violent drug convictions. Prison gives them a criminal record and a lifelong stigma that worsens their employment prospects, making it even more likely they'll progress further down the path to becoming real criminals as well as lifelong drug addicts.
---People in the U.S. make up 5% of the planet's population and 25% of the world's prisoners. The rate of incarceration has
doubled each decade since 1970. One in every 32 individuals is subject to the criminal justice system, most of them multiple times. Many prisons are so overcrowded that prisoners are being released purely because of this, further endangering society. Clearly something is wrong.
---There is no concept of restitution or restorative justice. Criminals naturally do not appreciate or put a value on housing, food, clothing, babysitting, education or rehabilitation programs if they pay nothing for it. Instead, the average cost per prisoner is $129/day or $47,000 per year. That costs every man, woman and child in the U.S. $350/yr to house these prisoners. Prisoners are also isolated from the shame and guilt they would otherwise experience if they had to face the families of their victims.
The author believes in punishment, but also in rehabilitation and the opportunity for a new beginning. Too often, a felon experiences indifference, low expectations, defiant solidarity with other criminals and subsequent disenfranchisement by society as a result of his incarceration, rather than caring compassion, discipline, rehabilitation/redemption and re-integration. He believes that babies are generally not born to be criminals, with only a few exceptions. Rather, their fundamental outlook is shaped by their environment more than their natural proclivities. The author wants to believe that ultimately, the vast majority of humans, if given a chance, will desire and strive for usefulness, dignity and respect. Unfortunately, a felon's limited time in prison often results in a
lifetime filled with stigmatization and lacking a fair chance to gain employment and to succeed. This is particularly tragic when we consider there are 25 million ex-felons on the streets of America today. The high rate of recidivism means few businesses are willing to hire someone with a criminal record unless they are encouraged to do so and are shielded from liability--but this lack of opportunity for the ex-felon only increases the likelihood of more recidivism.
Increased used of community-based rehab programs, electronic monitoring and custom-tailored treatment programs is claimed to be lowering prison populations and reducing recidivism. This trend appears to be on the rise. It mirrors the author's belief that the absolute worst thing we can do is release a felon from prison and expect him suddenly to be a different person. We should
not condemn ex-cons with no money and no skills to no future. Neither should be expect those guilty of impulse crimes such as sex offenders or drug addicts to suddenly no longer be tempted to repeat their crimes. Finally, ex-felons have a much lower recidivism rate when they are released to a stable living environment and a network of caring family and/or friends. Unfortunately, many do not have this to go back to. For those ex-felons who are battling impulse behavior or addictions,
monitoring devices may help, although care must be taken to make the device inconspicuous so as not to introduce a stigma to the wearer.
Detecting Crime and Identifying the Perpetrator
Studies show that
camera surveillance of public spaces helps reduce local crime. This is useful and beneficial so long as it does not violate privacy rights.
---This is expensive. Operating and maintenance costs dwarf initial installation costs.
---Law-abiding citizens do not appreciate being monitored unless they are plagued by a crime threat in their neighborhood, and have had a part in approving the surveillance and its method.
---Some people may see another problem with indiscriminate surveillance of the general public--in the extreme case, it may eliminate crime, but for the wrong reasons. A citizenry should learn to value and emulate universal human values and ethics instead of being conditioned to reject criminal instincts simply because they are otherwise likely to get caught and punished--otherwise, the very underpinning of civilization becomes artificial and precarious. For instance, people could quickly revert to all man's worst vices with a vengeance if the surveillance were suddenly removed, just as a rebellious teen who has left the home of his authoritarian parents often "goes nuts" and gets into trouble.
---Harassing a criminal using area surveillance and monitoring may cause him to move or to shift his activities to a different neighborhood or town, but it doesn't necessarily change his intent. To what extent this type of approach by itself actually lowers the overall incidence of crime in the long run, is debatable.
---State and national resources are needed, but the author believes that crime fighting based on monitoring is most effectively done using neighborhood and city based programs where those involved in the effort live near the criminal's place of residence and have a personal stake in its success.
Using surveillance vehicles to quell rowdiness and scare away drug dealers may help to keep a neighborhood safe.
Peoria, IL has found a new, low-budget way to fight crime: Park an unmanned, former Brink's truck bristling with video cameras in front of the dwellings of troublemakers. "Police here call it the Armadillo. They say it has restored quiet to some formerly rowdy streets. Neighbors' calls for help have dropped sharply. About half of the truck's targets have fled the neighborhood. "The truck is meant to be obnoxious and to cause shame," says Peoria Police Chief Steven Settingsgaard. The Armadillo has helped alleviate problems like drug dealing that can make neighborhoods unlivable." Again, though, this may make life miserable for the criminal and force him to move, but it doesn't necessarily mean he won't just terrorize some other neighborhood or city.
Some cities are taking full advantage of today's latest technology to fight crime. For instance, East Orange, New Jersey has a crime rate that has fallen by 2/3 since 2004, and this is at least partly attributed to a number of
high tech crime fighting technologies, from cameras with software that analyzes images and senses high-crime-risk behavior, to gunshot detection systems, to software that can sift and analyze crime data almost instantaneously.
There are other new or emerging crimefighting technologies, as indicted in
this article that discusses things like vehicle slowdown systems, bullet analysis technology, license plate recognition systems, brain fingerprinting, etc. Another article discusses remote sensing technology being developed for
"detecting crime before it happens" based on phys
iological signs of, say, people in airports. Nearly 40% of all killings go unsolved. In many shootings, bullet casings are the only tangible evidence police have. Micro-stamping technology could change that, although the gun lobby is fiercely opposed.
Chicago homicide statistics point to some additional ideas for how to fight crime:
--Curfew of a parole or gang member between the hours of 7pm and 5am may potentially curb the 70% of gun violence that otherwise occurs during those hours.
--Gang altercations cause >30% of homicides in Chicago, and 60% of offenders are males between the ages of 17-25. (Anti-gang initiatives and intervention programs obviously help, but the author wonders if programs to eliminate idleness might be the most helpful...idleness being the devil's playground.)
---Most murder weapons used by unknown assailants are "straw purchases" with filed-off serial numbers and/or are guns which are not properly registered by the person committing the murder. We need more effective methods for finding and eliminating these guns, such as serialized ammunition. (The gun lobby is opposed to this also.)
--Whites account for only 5.3% of all murders, even though they own more handguns than either Blacks or Hispanics. Facts like this unfortunately fuel prejudice, but they also indirectly emphasize the correlation between gun violence, lack of education and poverty. One takeaway is that in addition to education, we may need to develop anti-violence programs specifically tailored to high-risk groups, but based on risk factors other than race, so we don't profile good citizens just because of their skin color.
--Chicago has one of the highest rates of suicides, and it has risen again this year, with people who are 15-24 yrs old most at risk. In many cases where the problem is partly environmental, education and opportunity for employment may address this problem just as it address criminality.
PROPOSED WAYS TO REDUCE CRIME
Note: These proposals are not necessarily my own, but rather proposals based on opinions I agree with, from both conservative and liberal sources.
1. INCREASE TIME SPENT IN SCHOOL EACH DAY BY AT-RISK STUDENTS: First and foremost, prevent crime by nipping it in the bud. This cannot be overemphasized. Educate young people, teach them coping and social skills and allow them to know what it feels like to contribute to society. This is far more effective and less costly than pursuing criminals and attempting to rehabilitate them once they're incarcerated.
a) Do not allow schools to graduate a low-performing student just to get rid of him. Statistically, it's almost the same thing as releasing a new criminal to prey on society. If a student does not cooperate, arrange for him to attend reform school until he is at least 22 years old. (Truly mentally handicapped students are an exception.)
b) If a student falls behind, mandate late afternoon and evening self-paced work time at the school
every evening. If the student still falls behind, mandate year-round school as well. Also, provide this as an option to all motivated students who want it, even if they don't need it.
Make full use of self-paced, individual learning via computer and internet courses to reduce costs and the need for additional personnel.
c) Increase the use of charter or boarding schools for students from low-income areas, patterned after the most successful schools which are showing good results.
d) Require a certain minimum grade point average (i.e., "B") to be maintained as a requirement for playing in high school sports programs, no exceptions. Learning must take priority over sports, and producing "criminals with good coordination" based on a myth of sports stardom is just plain stupid. Also, deny a drivers license to students if they do not demonstrate at least the equivalent of a 10th grade reading level or if they get into trouble.
e) Continue mandated schooling of the student until 22 years old if necessary in order to get a GED equivalent and adequate vocational training. Knowledge of this requirement will be a clear message to students that there is a price to pay for goofing off and ignoring their studies.
f) Ideally, require 6 months of conscription by the student after high school for every student--i.e., community or military service, following the example of some other countries. Allow students to engage in qualifying extra-curricular activities for credit towards this time while in school if he/she wishes to satisfy the service requirement in less time.
g) Require students guilty of excessive truancy to wear an electronic monitor for the next 12 months, with enforced curfews as well, i.e.; from 7pm to 5am.
g) Put the onus for progress on the student as well as the teacher. If the student is motivated to learn, it will be much easier for the teacher to be motivated to teach.
i) In high-risk school districts, provide a place for students to "hang out" in a safe and supportive environment at the school every evening and engage in supervised sports, social activities and learning activities. Get parents engaged to help in this endeavor and to assist in transporting kids home.
2. HELP STUDENTS PLAN FOR (MANDATE??) VOCATIONAL SCHOOL OR SOME OTHER JOB TRACK:
Encourage at-risk students to enroll in a 2-year vocational school program (and provide financial assistance if needed) if they don't plan to go to college and do not already have employable, demonstrable skills, so they can learn a useful trade. Some credit could be given for internship or journeyman experience in a business, if applicable. There is no excuse for high unemployment while at the same time companies and businesses are having trouble finding good workers.
3. MAKE PRISONS MORE NEARLY SELF-SUPPORTING WHILE EMPLOYING PRISONERS
a) Add vocational education schools and drug rehab centers to prisons, if they don't already exist.
b) Convene a panel or think tank to come up with a list of all the types of useful work that prisoners (and parolees) could perform, such as harvesting vegetables and fruit, cleaning up and painting slum areas or trashed apartments, etc.
c) Invite companies to set up operations next to the prisons where able-bodied prisoners can choose between solitary confinement and working 40 hrs/wk while wearing monitors. Alternatively, put prisoners on electronic chain gangs to do manual labor along roadsides or doing other types of outdoor work identified as being appropriate.
d) Require an average of 4 additional hours devoted to classes and rehab every day for every prisoner.
e) Use a portion of prisoners' wages to help pay for their incarceration, schooling and rehab expenses.
f) Require prisoners to wear electronic devices to monitor, move and subdue them; use fewer guards.
g) Once a prisoner is released, allow him to continue working at the same or similar facility while he's looking for a job, albeit in a different building or on a different crew where he is not exposed to the prisoners. Provide him room and board (for a fee) if needed. Allow him time to build up a nest egg to make it easier for him to get an apartment, etc. once he gets on his own.
2. USE TECHNOLOGY TO MONITOR PAROLES AND ELIMINATE RECIDIVISM
a) Start a program where a trained volunteer visits each incarcerated person, chats with him and provides encouragement to him at least once a week.
b) Incorporate an extended probationary period with an electronic ankle or wrist monitor into a prisoner's release program, based on his criminal record and history. This may do more to eliminate recidivism and empty our prisons than anything else, other than education.
c) Provide different monitors tailored to different problems, whether for
addiction, violence, thievery, sex crimes, etc. Also, develop monitors for different levels of violent behavior, i.e., from mere physiological monitors, to GPS monitors, to monitors with cameras and microphones, to restraining monitors that stun the wearer if it hears a cry of "help".
d) Mandate inconspicuous monitors to be worn by drug addicts, sex offenders, etc. for many years to life. The monitors would be tailored to their situation, would help them avoid temptation and would protect the public as well. It is likely that sex offenders may even prefer this as an alternative to being identified as such and stigmatized wherever they go...and drug addicts may actually find this to be the only truly successful way to avoid a relapse.
3. REINSTATE THE LAW OUTLAWING THE POSSESSION OF ASSAULT WEAPONS that expired in 2004. This will require that we take on the NRA and gun manufacturers. One approach may be to raise anti-gun lobbying funds and to publicly expose and shame every congressman who is "owned" by the NRA. Another avenue may be a threat of civil lawsuits against gun manufacturers and sellers, similar to what was done with tobacco companies. Short of an outright ban, another approach may be to publicly identify and maintain a database of all owners of assault weapons (like the sex offender database) so that employers and neighbors can access this information, require periodic safety and storage training and psychological profile testing, and ensure that weapons and ammunition are serialized.
4. USE TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE GUN AND OTHER CRIMES EASIER TO TRACE
a) Mandate serialized bullets and/or micro-stamping technology
b) Implement gunshot detection systems in high crime areas
c) Prosecute gun owners if they "lose" their weapon or it is improperly stored and gets "stolen" or is sold without a background check, and is then used in the commission of a crime.
d) Institute biennial gun storage inspection programs and reward tipsters.
e) Develop and use sophisticated remote, non-invasive psycho-physiological sensors that track
eye movement,
voice, breathing, heartbeat, etc., to further improve lie detection during questioning of suspects.
f) Develop a sophisticated database of criminals, parolees and ex-felons linking them to factors like crime methods, weapons, types of victims, associates in crime, types of locations frequented, voice samples, DNA information, shoe size, fingerprints, travel habits, previous crimes, last place of residence, etc. so that crime scene evidence can be quickly used to generate possible suspects.
5. BAN VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES such as Call of Duty, based on damning evidence of a cumulative cause and effect relationship to aggressive behavior. Encourage parents to limit video playing time of even innocuous video games, based on their depriving kids of more socially beneficial activities and no redeeming value. Banning violet video games is admittedly a tough sell, since lawmakers have failed to do this despite past attempts.
6. HARASS DRUG DEALERS AND NEIGHBORHOOD NUISANCES:
a)
As is being done in Peoria, IL, this method of surveillance targets areas with surveillance vehicles as a results of requests by neighbors, and its primary purpose is to shame the offending residents, quell noise and stop them from dealing drugs
in that location. While it doesn't reform a criminal, it makes his life more miserable. More importantly, it gives a neighborhood a tool to fight crime, just a phone call away. Since the monitoring is very obvious to all, there are no invasion of privacy issues to worry about with this technique.
b) An on-line "blacklist" (with a map) of the names of such offenders who have created neighborhood problems should also be compiled and maintained by the police department after the second offense, to alert landlords, employers, new neighbors and others. The threat of being on this blacklist would serve as a further deterrent. This is one way of addressing minor crime before it becomes violent crime.
7. INVOLVE NEIGHBORHOOD RESIDENTS IN HIGH-TECH CRIME FIGHTING
This is based on the concept of crowd-sourcing. A very inexpensive community--and possibly nationwide--
voluntary program could be instituted for residents of all neighborhoods, not just high-risk neighborhoods. A resident could be provided with an inexpensive USB web camera with night vision (available for less than $20) to be mounted on the inside of their front window (facing the street). Using an existing PC owned by the resident, the camera could store an image every second to the PC's hard drive memory, which would always maintain 48 hours worth of time-stamped pictures. Pictures for which no motion were detected (i.e., nearly identical sequential pictures) would be culled to reduce hard drive storage requirements, and this would also enable longer-term storage; i.e., for two weeks instead of two days. A sophisticated software package would be used by the police to piece together time-stamped photos from different sources, so that if a crime were reported such as a child abduction, shooting, drug deal, etc., the police could literally "follow" the criminal's actions and movements through town and possibly even allow them to identify a getaway person/vehicle travelling to other towns, based on estimated time, picture of vehicle, etc. The software would be able to track movement from a crime scene, whether a vehicle or a fleeing person, and be able to request particular time/date and location-stamped photos to aid in it's reconstruction of a perpetrator's escape route. The beauty of this system is that (i) It allows an absolutely, unbelievably gargantuan amount of data to be available to the police department to use in solving crimes, but without overloading the system. (ii) If implemented correctly, it would not pose invasion of privacy issues. Only select pieces of time and location-stamped data from each computer's hard drive would be sent to the police database via the internet. Tracking of an individual's movement from a crime scene would involve the implicit approval of each computer's owner as well as the explicit approval of the prosecuting attorney for each search request, so people would not be under arbitrary surveillance. The nature and extent of all such activity would be logged and made publicly available shortly have the investigation were completed--again, to ensure no abuse of the system. Due to the amount of data generated, the information thus compiled would necessarily be temporary, and its sheer size and the way it would be distributed among many people would inherently discourage improper use by individuals. (iii) This voluntary program could be implemented independently or as part of an extremely effective neighborhood watch program. (iv) This program would be far more powerful, far more robust, far less likely to be vandalized, and far less intrusive than a system where the police install surveillance cameras on the tops of utility poles, etc. (v) The difference in operating and maintenance cost would likewise be truly staggering. The crowd-sourced surveillance costs would be perhaps 3 orders of magnitude lower. (vi) Other organizations such as real estate organizations, taxing authorities, mapping companies, insurance companies, etc. could also request photos from the resident, but only with his consent as well as possibly paying a small fee.
