The Fargo police say that the use of city cameras will help to stop crime in real time. Others call it 'Big Brother' observation – Inforum

Fargo-Die police authority from Fargo says that monitoring surveillance cameras enables the agency in real time in real time to find efficient crime and to protect the community.

Some have wondered whether the cameras are the “big brother” that the public observes, with a lawyer describing the move as “anti -American”.

The Fargo Police Department announced on Facebook last month that it used crimes committed in real time in the city center of Fargo in real time in the city center of Fargo. After monitoring the cameras, three people were arrested for drug accusations, and one was arrested after the police said he had not registered as a sex offender.

None of the suspects had a permanent address, which indicates that they were homeless at the time of the arrests.

Video The police department published on Facebook and court documents revealed three arrests in the Roberts Commons or in Roco, Parkrampe, and a fourth was outside the Fargo Civic Center.

The cameras are part of the real-time criminal center of the police authority, which integrates various technologies to solve and prevent crime. The center can be used to recognize crimes in real time and send officers to the scene to hire suspects, and described the strategy as a “game channel”.

“It's all in public places, and it is really … so that we do more efficient for business and how we prevent crimes,” said Ahlfeldt.

In a video of April 17, in which one of the arrests were explained, the chief of police from Fargo, David Zibolski, said he prepares a budget with which the “More boots” department put on the ground and more technology for the center “To get the safe fargo”.

“I look forward to seeing some of the recent successes that we have achieved with the implementation of our real-time criminal center and how we protect them, even if they don't see us out there,” said Zibolski in the video.

In some cases, the surveillance cameras used in the videos have been available in public areas for more than a decade in which no privacy is expected, said Ahlfeldt. The police on the street could see the crime that the cameras catch, he said.

“The aspect of the real-time criminal center is brand new, but the use of cameras to collect evidence of crimes is not a new thing,” he said.

The cameras probably do not violate the constitutional rights of privacy, said Dane Dekrey, a lawyer from Fargo, and former ACLU of the director of North Dakota. The police can define people in a public place if suspects commit a crime against an officer, Dekrey said.

The officials cannot see the activities of everyone at any moment, Dekrey said and left the residents a privacy in their time. He wondered if mass surveillance is what the residents in Fargo want.

The police not only patrol their beats to catch criminals, but also to build and maintain trust in their communities, Dekrey said.

“I think they lose trust if there are no police officers on the street, but there are only cameras and 'Big Brother' in the sky,” he said. “Just because we can do that, should we do that?”

“Big Brother” is an indication of the government of the government in George Orwell's novel “1984.”

The real-time criminal center was launched in June 2024, said Ahlfeldt. It was used to find missing people, to track down stolen vehicles and to stop crimes at large events such as the Downtown Fargo Street Fair, he said.

The center uses the license readers installed in the city to pursue vehicles that are suspected of being involved in crimes.

The police authority brought detectives and civil servants last month to monitor cameras more often and for a longer period of time in real time, said Ahlfeldt.

“It was a good exam, the times when we were able to occupy it more often last month,” he said.

Other cities across the country, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, have real -time criminal centers, said Ahlfeldt. Fargo is the first in North Dakota to implement the strategy, he said.

The Fargo Centers' employees can observe cameras when the police react to services, said Ahfeldt. The agency also observes live feeds in areas where data show that crime will probably occur more frequently, he said.

“You don't just see things by chance,” he said. “It is driven by data, it is intel-controlled and it is a call to the service.”

There is perception that the crime in the city center of Fargo is more common, he said.

“Here you can see a real difference, especially in our city center,” said Ahlfeldt. “You will see a difference in the perception of what is in the city center, and you will see a reduction in crime even more than last year.”

The police said the video of April 17, the first of three on the department's Facebook page, shows two men who smoke meth in the stairs of a park in the city center on April 10th. Court documents identify the ramp as Roco.

Officer Keith Fugleberg looked at the video live in the center and called the officers Blake Omberg and Molly Richardson to the ramp, where they arrested Jason Randy Pfau (57) and Anthony Santo, 40.

Pfau is charged with the possession of meth and drug utensils for crime, while Santo was accused of possessing drug utensils and was later guilty. Santo was currently convicted. Pfaus case remains active.

A photo of the surveillance video of April 16, which was published on April 24 on the Facebook page of the police department, shows that Michael James Johnson, 44, in which the contribution said, seemed to be a meth pipe when he was on stairs in front of the Fargo Civic Center. According to the post, Officer Elizabeth Miller Johnson saw the real-time criminal center and sent the officials Joel Hughes and Omberg to the scene, where they arrested Johnson because of an indictment for drug problems in the drug period.

The latest video published in May showed Douglas Erick Guys arrest on April 27th in Roco. The center noted that Guy, 41, was in a strange position “with his feet in the air at least two hours”, according to the post.

The center sent the officer Kelsey Deno to Guy's location to carry out a “welfare check”, the video contribution says. Fugleberg, who was in the center, recognized Guy as a sex offender at a moderate level, who previously registered as a homeless in the department, said the post office.

Detective Mark Voigtschild said Guy was “entitled to arrest” because, according to the post office, he did not register as a perpetrator often enough.

“According to the law of North Dakota, sex offenders who are homeless must check in every 72 hours with the law enforcement authorities in the jurisdiction in which they remain,” says the post office. “If you are missing a necessary check-in or stay in a location that has not been reported, it violates the registration laws of the ND-a criminal offense and an arrest.”

Santo's lawyer Jamie Schaible refused to comment on his case. The lawyer Patrick O'Day, who represents the other three men, did not give a message back from the forum.

Some commentators for the video in which Johnson's arrest is listed and thanked the department. Others called the live monitoring “Big Brother”.

The comments prompted the department to publish a comment that says that the cameras are in public spaces: “Where there is no expectation of privacy”. The department has not added cameras and privacy has not changed, said Ahlfeldt. You are in places where someone else can record or take photos, he said.

“We only use it to make the security of the community a bit more efficient,” he said.

In theory, everything that one person does in public can be seen, but in practice their actions are not always seen by the law enforcement authorities, he said. Officers only have two eyes while cameras can see several angles around the clock, he said. The police can also rewind the film material and watch it again, he said.

“The mass surveillance simply feels anti -American, even though they are in public,” said Dekrey. “Even if you are in public, we still like to think that as a citizen we work in any form of anonymity unless we do something that appears criminal. You can do everything here.”

Dekrey asked whether the public could see the city's surveillance material because the video is recorded in public.

“If the argument is that this is simply a live feed in the city center and it is the same as someone else's eyes in the city center, the public should be able to watch it if you want,” he said. “It shouldn't just be the police.”

Ahlfeldt refused to say which hours the officials worked and said that the public would publish tactical strategies.

Citing the law of North Dakota, Ahfeldt said that the department would not publish the location or video collected by the center.

“The cameras in our network in real -time crime are used as a critical infrastructure as part of public security,” said Ahfeldt.

When asked whether surveillance could affect the city's homeless population disproportionately, Ahlfeldt said: “All types of people, not just homeless people”, use drugs in public. The videos shared on Facebook were published by the department because they do not affect an ongoing examination, he said.

“We have to remember that we couldn't make a mistake on social media what they could do, what they were doing is illegal,” he said, adding that the department will show people who are not homeless.

Video evidence was a “key part” in solving crimes, said Ahlfeldt. The real-time criminal center will help collect evidence and to improve public security, he said.

“I understand that people have concerns that this is” big brother “, or we violate the fourth rights of change from someone,” he said. “On the contrary, we try to protect the rights of the individual and protect the public.”