Baltimore has some dark stories. This winter, thieves cut down and carted away 136 streetlights (for the aluminum, police say). So bureau-crats decided that the city's surveillance cams needed to do more to deter crime. Their solution: Five $5,000 solar-épowered digital imagers that shout when they sense motion. It's not exactly trash talk. "Stop! We have just taken your photograph. We will use this photograph to prosecute you. Leave the area now!"
Do they work? Do car alarms? Similarly chatty cams, installed in Cincinnati in 2004, got noise-complaints. Baltimore's just hoping no one steals them.
- Barnaby Wickham
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