Startup Idea: Google Home based Surveillance System for Underserved Communities

Startup idea to use Google Home devices as a foundation to create a cost-efficient surveillance and enforcement system, integrating with existing CCTV systems, for underserved communities. This omnipotent surveillance might improve urban security, shot spotting, offender tracking, while creating a central data repository for law enforcement to collect and analyze evidence.

I work in criminal justice and a major issue in urban and commercial centers across the United States (and world) is the lack of supervision or surveillance-based technologies in underserved communities. I think if software, hardware, and animatronics continues to synthesize and integrate, then a perfect 'sci-fi,' omnipotent surveillance and enforcement based-system can be created using the Google Home Device platform as a great foundation for introducing this technology on a massive and cost-efficient scale.

Placing the google home device in a hard to reach or unmonitored locations along side existing CCTV camera would allow for greater security, accuracy in shot spotter and offender movement tracking, and creates central repository of data and evidence. The relative cost would allow for communities across the US to be blanketed in the google home based surveillance technology. The technology would obviously have to be more aggressive, alert, and conscious of the environment, but the automated presence of the google home and community surveillance system would be cloud based, making it a more efficient and reliable system for law enforcement and national security when collecting and analyzing evidence or data.

The inherent privacy risks and constitutional rights considerations may outweigh and hinder the implementation of a wide casting net of surveillance based google home and community devices, but consider the Kitty Genovese case study for a moment. Kitty Genovese was being attack and raped after coming home and getting off a train in Queens NYC at 3am, and while over a 100 people reported hearing her screams, not a single person decided to inform the police, perhaps due to socio-cultural consideration ("stop-snitching") or due to pure negligence. However, if a google home and community surveillance device was located on that corner, she would have been able to scream and the device and camera would alter the police immediately and they would have been able to surveillance the scene and determine if a police presence is needed. An aggressive device may have set off a siren or vocalized to the offender "STEP AWAY FROM THE VICTIM, THE PENALTY FOR RAPE IS LIFE IN THE ISO-CUBE". No.