[hackerspaces] Vandalism and Video Surveillance

[Josh Pritt]

Makers Local 256 has always had video surveillance.  This is to keep the expensive tools from walking off as well as to keep everyone's personal stuff from getting messed up or stolen.
It's almost mandatory if you are giving 24/7 access to members as once someone becomes a member they can just come in and take stuff in the night.

Sent from my iPad

On Mar 17, 2014, at 7:39 PM, Georges Kesseler <georgeskesseler at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> I once put up a videocamera to see who's doing mess in the kitchen.
> It backfired in 2 ways
> * members were pissed they got videoed without being told
> * general consciousness rose that it's everyone's space and the kitchen
> was cleaner later on.
> 
> Still, everytime unexplained things happen the thoughts go often
> direction surveillance tools, it's easiest but the most intrusive. So it
> should really be last resort.
> But you can use members to check:
> Everyone should report asap when something out of common appears. Then
> you can ask who was present then, and before, tracking back in time.
> 
> Georges
> 
> 
> On 03/17/2014 03:25 AM, Bob Bownes wrote:
>> Short of having someone there 24x7, you are kind of stuck with either video cameras or waiting them out. It will stop when they get bored, or escalate. 
>> 
>> Maybe bring it up in a meeting, ask a few suspects to keep an eye out, try to correlate it with your card key system if you have one. It isn't hard to narrow it down to a few folks, then just ask all of them to keep an eye out because it seems to be happening near when they are in the space. At least that worked for the fire dept and an arsonist we had in town a few years ago. ;)
>> 
>> Bob
>> 
>> 
>>> On Mar 16, 2014, at 22:12, Sean Alexandre <sean at alexan.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> We have a strange problem at our hackerspace, with minor vandalism. At first it
>>> seemed like someone was just being messy, but now it looks malicious.
>>> 
>>> As one simple example, we recently had a work day to organize the space. Parts
>>> were put in boxes based on what they were: hard drives, networking equipment,
>>> etc.  One box had phones, and had four simple touch-tone phones. Someone took
>>> each of them and put them randomly in other boxes.
>>> 
>>> There have been other things like this, some worse. We have another room with
>>> wood and metal working tools, and someone took tools and parts out of their
>>> containers and spread them around the room.
>>> 
>>> I have to say that I'm not at the space enough to give details on everything
>>> that's happened.  But, the general consensus now seems to be that what's
>>> happening is being done maliciously.
>>> 
>>> Some have spoken in favor of installing video cameras, to surveil the space, as
>>> a way to stop this.
>>> 
>>> Others, me included, really don't want to see video surveillance in the space.
>>> 
>>> Any thoughts on what to do?
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
>>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
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