CYCLOPS ALERT--Help us Document Spying Cameras that are proliferating in the Twin Cities and Demand Answers About Them

CYCLOPS ALERT

Our City has recently been invaded by a colony of Cyclops-like creatures. Actually they have been here for more than a year. They escaped from a circus that passed through in September of 2008. At that time the Cyclops colony clustered in the downtown area and the public was reassured it was harmless. However a recent spurt of growth in the Cyclops population has caused concern around the city. The colony is spreading out from downtown. They seem to prefer heavily traveled streets and busy intersections.

The feeding habits of the Cyclops are of great concern. Originally the colony sustained itself by spying on evil terrorists and kooky anarchists. However, it is now clear that terrorists do not plot their evil schemes at busy intersections, and the anarchists have vanished. Now that its usual diet is no longer available, the colony has developed a taste for ordinary citizens going about their business. Its favorite condiments seem to be fear, mistrust, and suspicion. Worse yet, these evil creatures get their fiber by devouring the Constitution.

The Cyclops colony apparently has a social structure much like that of a bee or ant colony. The most important individual is the queen. She is far larger and stays secluded, while the rest of the colony exists only to sustain her. The queen seems to have an insatiable curiosity about us. Her memory is vast, permanent and expandable. She can communicate with other agencies and seems eager to share data with them. But without the Cyclops "worker bees" spread throughout our fair City, she would starve to death.

A common concern is that the queen can take image data from the Cyclopes around town, use recognition software to read license plates and then match that data with other data bases. What might be done with such data is not known, at least not to the general public, but it seems fair to wonder: can face recognition software be far away? We simply don't know.

Here's what to look for: The Cyclops has one giant, unblinking eye. The preferred nesting place is atop poles in and around busy intersections where they have a good view of us yet are easily overlooked by unwary citizens. They thrive in our climate, doing equally well in the heat and cold. They need no sleep and can watch over us day and night.

It is not clear what ordinary citizens are to do. Some suspect that the authorities are colluding with the colony. We fear the best we can do at this uncertain moment is to monitor the growth of this colony. Attached is a map of the city with the known Cyclops locations indicated. Please study this map and inform us of locations not yet marked.

How to protect yourself: If you must leave home, avoid busy streets. Do not drive a car. Cover your face or wear a cap with a large bill. Scarves and hoods are believed to be effective. Keep your face down. Avoid windows that might reflect your image into the beasts' field of view.

PS Despite its vast network of high resolution eyeballs, ability to communicate with all sorts of data bases and virtually unlimited computing and memory capacity, the colony is completely unable to spot a pothole and report it to the appropriate authorities!

Seriously folks, what is going on here? When these cameras first appeared just before the RNC in 2008, it was easy for City Hall to say the Federal Government insisted on having them and was willing to pay for them. But now, a year and a half later, this expansion has to be an inside job. We're serious about tracking the spread of these monstrosities. Look around your neighborhood. If you see a Cyclops, make note of the location, and see if it's on our map. If not, email the location to us, and we will add it.

But tracking this ugly development is not enough. We need to hold City Hall accountable. Email the Mayor and then email or call your City Council member and demand they answer these questions:

• What ARE these things?
• How much can they see?
• How far can they see?
• Do they zoom in on and track individuals or do they have a stationary wide angle view?
• Are they being continually monitored by people or software or are they just there as background, and looked at only after an event?
• What do you do with the data you collect?
• Who do you share it with?
• How long do you keep it?
• Is there more than one monitoring station?
• Where are they located?
• How many staff are assigned to them, and who are they and how much are the paid?
• Are you using recognition software and comparing your data to other databases?
• Who's idea was it to keep the RNC cameras, and now to add to them?
• What other items did we acquire for the RNC, where are they, how are they being used, and by whom?
• How many of the Cyclops cameras are you going to put up?
• How do you decide where to put them?
• Who is paying for them?
• What do they cost to install?
• What do they cost to operate?
• What other services are being sacrificed to pay for these?
• What other means of surveillance are you using on us?
• Why the secrecy?
• Does anyone in City Hall care what the taxpayers and voters think about this intrusion?

After e-mailing the mayor,call or email your city council member and demand answers from them too. You can find contact information for your city council member by clicking here. Click on the link for your ward/council member for their home page with contact info.

We're collecting information about the surveillance camera locations. Click here for a Google map that shows the locations of the cameras we are currently aware of.

We will add others as we discover them. Use the scale to the left to zoom in and out, and double click on an info bubble to find the exact location of the camera. Some of the pointers are yellow. This indicates there is a photo attached. 

Use this link to get a written list of the spy camera locations

So far, we have only looked in Saint Paul and documented cameras there. Please be on the lookout in Minneapolis, too.

If you see a camera that isn't on our map or written list, please email us with the location at watchdog@metrowatchdog.org