Gettin' SCAGgy Wid It In The Queen City

Okay that headline just doesn't work with today's street slang.

But SCAG is an acronym that applies to what is going on in Cincinnati in the coming months. Using a $2 million grant, police there are installing a metro-wide system of up to 120 cameras to watch for crime around the city.

Street Cameras Against Crime (SCAG). Catchy, isn't it?

This quote, in particular, made me grin:

"Say there's an officer eating his lunch in his car," he said. "Eventually, he'll be able to watch a camera that's maybe two blocks away. So if he sees something, he puts down his lunch and goes."

Sounds like a great sales pitch for the general public. But in reality, I think the local Fraternal Order of Police may have an opinion on that idea of watching "crime TV" (truly now a neighborhood watch) during lunch, let alone putting down lunch to chase bad guys. Again, if you get my drift, during a lunch break. Remember, it is first and foremost a salary and benefits bargaining union for LEOs.

That, actually, is the ideal outcome, planners say -- enabling officers to watch real-time video in their cruisers. Cincinnati is following larger cities such as Chicago and New York into the crime camera business. London leads the way in sheer quantity, with 10,000 throughout the British capitol, though many opponents seriouosly question whether the cameras deter crime.

So smile!