USPS says the cameras, put on USPS truck dashboards, will scan roads, signs, and more.
The United States Postal Service is running a pilot program to put cameras in its mail carrier trucks that continuously scan roads and signs, map roadways and sidewalks, and improve “community safety,” according to a letter posted by a labor union and a statement from the agency to 404 Media. The idea is that, since the trucks are constantly traveling anyway, they can be used as a way to collect data, eventually potentially across the nation.
The letter, written by the United States Postal Service (USPS) Labor Relations to Brian Renfroe, the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, says the USPS will partner with Next Base, a dashcam company, for the pilot. At the moment, the cameras will be used in the Washington, DC area, and will be installed on a hundred vehicles, the letter says.
On its website, Next Base offers a variety of dash cams, marketed to ordinary drivers, fleet operators, and ride share drivers. Its website says Next Base’s cameras record in up to 4K, and can capture every “license plate” with precision. The cameras don’t run automatic license plate reader (ALPR) software, though.
The pilot was slated to start on September 21, and is expected to last several months, the letter says.
USPS trucks already have 360 degree cameras that capture the outside of the vehicle for a period of time.
Can we pease stop building panopticon
The only “upside” to all this is that the worse it gets the more awareness people have
My local school board installed cameras in the buildings. Ostensibly to track where the shooter is in case there ever is one.
I spoke against this at the meeting by talking about Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon.
I spoke fully 5 minutes before realizing
None of the fucking school board knew who Bentham was or his idea for total surveillance prisons.
I don’t think that is terribly surprising as it is a pretty obscure reference
Should not be obscure to people who ostensibly have degrees in philosophy and/or social science and presume to have the wisdom and foresight to set public education policy
People are dumb sheep. Awareness is going to do jack fucking shit when they’re coked up on social media.
Hard disagree
People are slowly starting to wake up
I mean we’ve all moved to Lemmy instead of using other social media. It ain’t perfect but it shows a lot of people are trying.
Normally, I’d agree with you. I was the only person I knew in my whole community that was anti-war in 2001.
But Flock losing 100+ contracts, just in September, and 400+ in 36 states since June suggests that awareness of the problem is translating to mass action via the boring, pedestrian democratic process. (Also a great reminder that while we have no power nationally, we still have power locally.)
Agreed that people are generally sheep. It’s why people still vote D and R, but at least right now, they’re doing something. The overall problem is that it takes way less time for this sort of thing to proliferate than it does for people and the law to catch up.