Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: Notesfiles $Revision: 1.7.0.5 $; site smu Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!convex!smu!leff From: leff@smu Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Rape (A Solution) Message-ID: <25100002@smu> Date: Mon, 15-Jul-85 02:02:00 EDT Article-I.D.: smu.25100002 Posted: Mon Jul 15 02:02:00 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 17-Jul-85 08:09:46 EDT Lines: 51 Nf-ID: #N:smu:25100002:000:3115 Nf-From: smu!leff Jul 15 01:02:00 1985 There is no more reason for a women walking down the street to fear rape than a parent has to fear that their child will contract polio. A cost effective solution to the problem of sexual attacks on women (as well as all forms of street crime) is putting a video camera on every street corner. Each corner's camera would be able to rotate and thus observe at least half way down the street in four directions. They can be mounted on separate towers or suspended on wire rope suspended between buildings or traffic lights. The cameras would be enclosed in plexiglas to protect against the stones of vandals. Using the cables for cable television, the cameras output would be transmitted to the police station. Such a system has been installed on a trial basis on a few corners in University Park at a cost of $6,000 per camera. The area covered by each camera (halfway down each of four city blocks) would contain at least 50 households. Thus the one time installation cost would be about $300.00/household. One person could monitor 30 cameras. At four fourty hour shifts per week and at $10,000/year for a minimum wage employee including benefits, it would take $40,000 a year to monitor these thirty cameras or a cost of about $1000 dollar a year/camera. Since each camera is protecting 50 households, we have a twenty dollar/year/household cost for monitoring. As you can see the costs are low compared to either the per capita cost for criminal justice or the charge for something like cable tv. In many urban areas, the density would be much higher than fifty households on four half blocks so the per household cost would be much lower than specified. Motion detectors that would only show those streets with a person or car on it could be used, we could increase the number of cameras per monitoring person. This would reduce continuing costs still further. The audio system would be programmed to detect sounds like screams, thus guaranteeing that every screem would be heard and more importantly acted upon. These cameras would totally eliminate street crime since it would be impossible to commit same without being caught. It would be like having a cop at every corner at a fraction of the expense. Any women walking alone would feel like they were being escorted with an escort that could summon the police instantaneously. In addition the cameras could be connected to videotape systems to provide evidence in the event of a prosecution. They could also be used to keep track of any person leaving the scene of a crime so the police could apprehend them easily. Technology has eliminated such dangers as tuberculosis and polio to the point where they are no longer even talked about by the general populus. People were once fearful of catching these dread diseases. Now they are no longer on people's minds. In the 1980s, crime is the most feared thing on peoples minds. The fear of rape has caused women to change their lifestyle, the jobs they take and where they live and have in one women's words, imposed an unwritten curfew. Technology can eliminate this fear as well!