BluTube Smacks Of Big Brother Say Critics

Click to enlarge

Known as Project VIEW, or Video Image Evidence on the Web, the website has been in development by NSW Police since the Cronulla riots, News Limited has reported.
According to Police Minister David Campbell, the public would be able to submit film taken on mobile phones and video cameras to be then used by police.
“This is about the future of policing in NSW,” Mr Campbell said in various newspaper reports.
However, NSW opposition police spokesman Mike Gallacher said the plan could put lives in danger by encouraging members of the public to get a closer look at criminal or dangerous events.
“The potential is for neighbours to get into disputes and conduct surveillance on one another using their mobile phones hoping to catch the other neighbour out for committing some minor indiscretion”, Mr Gallacher said.
Mr Campbell claimed the $8 million project would be carefully tested and designed to ensure security, possibly by allowing people to use the service anonymously.
“Just because someone sent a text message of something… doesn’t automatically mean that someone will be convicted. But police will use that as part of gathering their evidence to present a case to the court and the courts then to pass sentence.”
Video footage has already been used in court to support convictions in the past, according to NSW Police sources, including YouTube footage of people painting graffiti on trains.
According to reports, this concept has been accepted by the top brass of NSW police along with the notion that the Cronulla riots investigation would have greatly benefited from better use of technology.