John Oliver, host of HBO's "Last Week Tonight," has spotlighted the extensive use of surveillance technology by the Rialto, California Police Department, focusing on the department's access to private security camera feeds.
Oliver's investigation revealed that Rialto police can reportedly access over 150 live streams from private businesses through Fusus, a company that provides law enforcement with quick access to privately owned cameras and recorded footage. The show highlighted that new businesses in Rialto are required to link their cameras to the Fusus system.
In an effort to understand the scope of this surveillance, Oliver's team filed public records requests with the Rialto Police Department, seeking a log of when officers accessed private camera feeds. The department provided a document described as a "huge" 30,413-page PDF file.
After reviewing the extensive document, "Last Week Tonight" found over 100 instances where police accessed cameras in fast-food establishments, including a check on a Wienerschnitzel grill and a two-hour monitoring session involving five cameras inside a Chick-fil-A. The department also accessed cameras at a local Days Inn for hundreds of hours, including one facing the hotel pool.
The Rialto Police Department stated that some of these accesses involved monitoring wider areas that included these locations or were related to cameras left on in the background at offices. Oliver expressed skepticism about the reassurance these explanations provided, suggesting that surveillance tools may have significant flaws that are not being openly acknowledged by those who sell and utilize them.