Houston Independent School District selected a local Houston company to provide exterior cameras for the District’s fleet of 989 school buses. In August 2012 Safety Vision, according to this statement from Mark Swackhamer, HISD’s Senior Manager of Fleet Operations, was selected to add exterior cameras on 400 buses and eventually the entire fleet:
“The HISD Transportation Department has worked diligently this summer to increase student safety on our school buses. The addition of safety Vision exterior cameras on 400 buses and eventually our entire fleet will greatly enrich our transportation security initiatives. Student and employee safety is our highest priority and the addition of Safety Vision SV-835 and SV-690 exterior cameras will help us achieve our goals to have the most protected, reliable fleet possible,” said HISD’s Senior Manager of Fleet Operations Mark Swackhamer.
It’s not a stretch to envision at some point the SV-835 and SV-690 exterior cameras could be complemented by interior microphone-enabled surveillance systems. Such a system facilitates the ability to store and record private conversations, something Safety Vision actively promotes on its website (emphasis mine)
Safety Vision offers a full suite of mass transit mobile digital video recording solutions…featuring rugged and reliable mobile DVRs, wireless download of video and audio files…
Transit authorities in San Francisco, Baltimore and other cities are already installing these systems on their PUBLIC buses. As reported by Wired.com—THREE DAYS after December 7th, the commemoration of Pearl Harbor Day:
“the use of these systems raises serious questions about eavesdropping without a warrant, particularly since recordings of passengers could be obtained and used by law enforcement agencies”
The Right to Privacy is dying for Houston schoolchildren. And their parents, the ones who voted for more of this tyranny on Election Day could care less.
Where is the presumption of privacy in a public place?
EXTERIOR Cameras could also provide valuable clues to the following:
1. The identity of persons lurking at or near school buses with the intent of harming or kidnapping
a child.
2. Plate numbers of cars that have hit a child exiting a bus and have FSRA.
3. Provide the plate numbers of cars that fail to obey the mandatory stop behind
school buses that are discharging passengers.
I am not sure how useful microphones would be. Wind and ever-present road noise would likely
render any recording useless unless it painstakingly filtered by a NASA Engineer.
Simple
Why stop with busses. How about cameras in the classroom. That’s coming. Here’s the logic: public taxpayer money pays teachers’ salaries, therefore, what goes on in a public taxpayer funded classroom (or on a bus) should be available to the taxpaying public. Much easier to document lazy incompetent teachers with video evidence.The 4th amendment would, however, be safe in private schools, non?
As far as I can remember, children have never had a right to privacy. The courts as far back as the 70′,s, courts have said that for their safety lockers could be searched in schools and backpacks. The newly found rights such as a right to privacy for children that even extends to children being able to get birth control with parents knowledge is a recent liberal invention that even it looks as if conservatives are adopting. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that there is no expectation of privacy in public schools. The Texas Education Code says a district employee is not required to get a parent’s consent before making a videotape of a child to be used only for the purposes of safety, including discipline in common areas and buses, among other exceptions
I don’t think it is accurate to blame this on those that voted for “tyranny,” or to accuse all of them of not caring. This kind of garbage tends to fly under the radar, without the scrutiny due it.
Very successful assaults against, as well as downright insults to, the 4th amendment protections from government intrusion have been ongoing for nearly 50 years, and have been supported by both wings of our political bird, from the lowest ranks of pandering semi-professional politicians to the pros leagues in the highest offices and courts of the land.
I’m skeptical that this trend can be stopped, regardless of which political ideology is temporarily dominant. And I’m generally an optimist.
Bob, Izz, and Yvonne
So…you can’t find any Presumption of Privacy challanges for the public highway or street that were upheld?
Simple.
SS, good point, however, I’m not sure of your point.
SS, another school shooting, yawn. Price we pay for freedom.
The paranoia is getting out of hand. The news is now stating that 20 school children were murdered by a lunatic, making the timing of this paranoid blog posting unfortunate. Today, I hope they put surveillance cameras all over my kid's schoolyard. I am also sick of the GOP sounding the paranoia klaxon at the slightest hint of anything that might actually make common sense.
Many politicians just don’t have the guts to discuss gun control. That’s not the case witrh Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson who was influential in passing the state’s concealed handgun law in 1995.”Schoolchildern would be safer if more people carried guns on campuses,” he said.
Jesus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNJIhF_DY7E
1. Just as I am, without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidst me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
2. Just as I am, and waiting not
to rid my soul of one dark blot,
to thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
3. Just as I am, though tossed about
with many a conflict, many a doubt,
fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
4. Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;
sight, riches, healing of the mind,
yea, all I need in thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
5. Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
because thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
6. Just as I am, thy love unknown
hath broken every barrier down;
now, to be thine, yea thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
I'm not sure I would expect much different from our Government Youth Indoctrination Programs….