There ’s cracking news if you ’re a devotee of play and flying , spy robots .
Times Square , 5th circle of hell and home of theworld ’s dumbest ads , could be the site of New York City ’s next casino . Caesars Entertainment has teamed up with developer SL Green Realty Corporation in a bid for a casino license , and they ’re trying to sweeten the hatful with a proposal that is move to drive you wild if you hate privacy .
accord to a papers receive by theNew York Times :
Photo: Thongsuk7824 (Shutterstock)
In their alphabetic character seeking livelihood for the gambling casino , SL Green and Caesars said that gambling tax income could be used to more than double the number of “ public safety officer ” in Times Square and to deploy surveillance drones .
The letter say a young cassino would result in more than 50 unexampled artificial intelligence photographic camera systems “ strategically place throughout Times Square , each subject of monitor 85,000 + masses per Clarence Day . ”
A raw gambling house could have a Brobdingnagian economic impact on Times Square and the city at bombastic . holidaymaker and New Yorkers have been slow to recall to the expanse after the pandemic , thanks in part to a recent scare over rising crime rates . The the true is crime rates have gone up portion - wise , but they ’re still at historic lows . And no matter the facts about crime , the expert who spoke to Gizmodo enounce one thing is clear : increasing surveillance is a high-risk solution .
“ At a clock time when our car , underpass rides , and busses are more monitored than ever , adding a new fleet of drones and AI camera will rob us of the right to even take the air down the street untracked , ” order Albert Fox Cahn , executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project ( STOP ) . “ The system will waste money , be ripe for abuse , and it wo n’t do a thing about the tangible drivers of crime . ”
Shining Path Green voice Jack Lynch secern Gizmodo the troupe is form close with the community and former New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton , who reportedly helped develop the design , “ to find the best computer software of solutions to make Times Square safer for everyone . ” Caesars Entertainment did n’t answer to a postulation for comment .
Let ’s take a face at the facts . There was a big ear in homicides in New York City during the pandemic . Some were peculiarly worrying , including a the great unwashed shooting on the subway last April . But according toBloomberg News , the murder rate fell lower than it has been in ten prior to the pandemic , and today , the number of homicide about the same as it was in 2009 . In the drear twenty-four hours of New York ’s seventies and ‘ eighty , the homicide charge per unit was five fourth dimension higher than it is now .
So why have we been pick up so much about crime in the Big Apple ? It ’s because the intelligence has been hyping it up . Bloomberg ’s analysis shows that the number of times the media mentioned New York shootings in the last few years is totally unrelated to the actual number of shot . There ’s an former saying in news media , “ if it bleeds it precede , ” and reporters and talking head have clearly been take that to heart .
Of of course , the public is n’t digging through crime stats , they ’re hearing the headlines and getting justifiably freak out out . powerful on cue , political figures are jumping on the chance to show they’retough on crime , and surveillance gets trot out as a root . New York Governor Kathy Hochul , announcing the rollout of more cameras on the NYC subway organisation , say recently , “ You think Big Brother is determine you on the subway ? You ’re absolutely correct . That is our intent . ”
“ The very bad time to introduce fresh surveillance tools like drone that will have profound and lasting impacts on privateness and justice is when the great unwashed are worried about their refuge , ” order Evan Selinger , a prof at the Rochester Institute of Technology who studies surveillance technology . We should be necessitate , agree Selinger , “ whether the marriage offer is security theater that advance a false sensation of base hit while creating unsafe substructure that in all likelihood will be pervert . ”
Surveillance is often framed as a tradeoff between safety and privacy , but it does n’t necessarily even help with crime . For exercise , there were camera around during lastApril ’s mass shootingon the underground , but they did n’t help catch the defendant , nor did the cop . He plough himself in a day subsequently .
What surveillance does do is have a disproportionately negative effect on community of coloring material and other marginalized groups . The casino moguls ’ pop the question “ contrived word ” camera systems is in all likeliness a fancy fashion to say facial recognition . legion research projects show that facial identification tool harborserious prejudice , and they ’re far risky at recognizing people with dark skin , women , and new people .
We ’ve already seen this problem ’s potential to ruin people ’s life . Facial recognition has led toseveral simulated arrestsand even imprisonment for Black man over crimes they had nothing to do with .
The views of people advocating the surveillance drones “ are saturated with , and shrouded by , the techno - fallacies of the data old age , ” say Gary T. Marx , professor emeritus of sociology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Surveillance cameras always raise a number of troubling issues , including who commence to get at the data and how it ’s stored , the reliability of the info , and canonical doubtfulness about how effective they are .
Marc Holliday , the main executive of SL Green , told the New York Times that New Yorkers have a responsibility to protect the street . “ It ’s incumbent on us to keep making certain Times Square is keeping up with the fourth dimension , and does n’t go back to what I ’ll call the high-risk old days of the ’ 70s or the early ’ 90s , ” Holliday said . “ And we all recollect what that was like , when it comes to offense , and , you know , open drug use . ” But Holliday is simultaneously preach for a elephantine new hub for boozing and gambling . Either you require a hideout of iniquity and frailty or you do n’t , Mr. Holliday . beak one .
Increased surveillance does n’t just harm marginalize community , it has a chilling effect on free expression . mass bear differently when they know they ’re being watched , and if the plan go the wrong way of life , it could change the tenor voice of the whole area , which represent New York City to millions of visitors , however much New Yorkers might be loathe to go there .
“ If the city makes this high - stake stakes on gambling casino surveillance , I worry they ’ll take a chance away the future of our public street , ” said Fox Cahn of STOP . “ For generations , New Yorkers have used Times Square to resist unjustness and march for a better future tense , but this plan will give us a techno dystopian nightmare instead . ”
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