FC: Mexican government ponders TijuanaPrisonCam.com, more or less

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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From: "Xeni Jardin" <xeni () xeni net>
To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan () well com>
Subject: TijuanaPrisonCam.com? Mexican Govt. to install webcams in jail cells.
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 00:30:20 -0700

This bizarre announcement has received some limited play in Spanish-language
media here in San Diego... no pithy one-liner I might insert here could top
the surreal hilarity of the facts themselves. I don't know the actual
address of the planned webcam site, but the url for the Baja attorney
general's site is <http://www.pgjebc.gob.mx/main.htm>. --XJ

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<http://www.uniontrib.com/news/mexico/20020607-9999_6m7cameras.html>

Cameras to monitor holding cells
Baja officials plan link to Internet

By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

June 7, 2002

TIJUANA ­ The Baja California Attorney General's Office soon will install
Internet-wired video cameras to monitor holding cells and the other areas
detainees pass through.

Human-rights organizations, lawyers' groups ­ and eventually the general
public ­ will be able to access the video through a special Web site that is
being designed.

"The objective is to be transparent in what we are doing and to eradicate .
. . complaints that people are placed in holding cells who shouldn't be
there and that they are treated poorly or aren't given food," said Antonio
Martínez Luna, the state attorney general.

A pilot program has been started at the attorney general's Mexicali office,
said Raúl Gutiérrez, spokesman for the Tijuana office. The cameras are
expected to be permanently installed in both offices in the next three
months.

Officials in Tijuana are still deciding how many cameras to use and where to
install them. At this point, the cameras won't be recording interviews
conducted by state investigators, and they won't be placed in areas where
they might discourage residents from reporting crimes.

[...]




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