what is washington dc’s police doing standing around inside stores?

i went to the new mall in columbia heights today (they have a target, a best buy, and a bed bath and beyond). when i left the best buy there was a police officer in his mpdc uniform standing inside the store, checking the receipts of customers leaving the store (a function that is usually done by store clerks or store security staff). when i left the target a couple of minutes later, there too was a mpdc police officer standing inside the store. the same can be found day-in, day-out at the giant, where a mpdc officer is sitting inside the store nearly all the time. it is not that i am against seeing more police on the streets, but this is not on the streets, this is in stores. these stores are not public space (as a lot of stories about malls and stores recently have shown — with mall visitors not being allowed to make pictures or wear the shirts they like) and therefor should be protected by private security guards if those store deem it necessary to have extra security. mpdc is payed by tax payers and the focus of the force should therefor be on protecting all citizens and not just the goods of a select few companies. if those police officers would stand outside of the stores on the streets, they would be able to provide security to the whole neighborhood as well as ensure that criminals who are targeting the stores would be deterred.  i would be quite interested to know if this is mpdc policy to have police stationed in stores or if maybe these officers are making an extra buck by allowing stores to cut on security cost?  

the district police would make george orwell proud

it is not 1984, and i guess we are not living in a policy state. but sometimes, these days, here in the united states of america it is hard to be sure neither is the case. the current administration has done anything it can to turn 1984 into non-fiction (trying to spy on any communication even between americans, sending even americans into prison camps in some case indefinitely). and for the policy state, well if you walk around nearly any large city in this country you will find police everywhere. today the police here in the nation’s capital, washington dc, has started to use 73 newly installed surveillance cameras (also known as CCTV) all over the city. 

Since August 2006, the city has installed 73 cameras across the city, mostly on utility poles, at a cost of about $4 million. But until recently, officers were using them mainly as an investigative tool — checking the recordings after crimes were committed in hopes of turning up leads and evidence. 

 here is a map of all the locations of the cameras, which according to the police are located in high crime areas. and this is not all, more cameras are planned

Police hope to add about 50 cameras in the next two years and make other upgrades, at an estimated cost of $4.5 million. Of the 73 cameras in neighborhoods, police can get live feeds from 54, officials said. Eventually, they plan to have the capability to get live images from all of the cameras.  

 and these cameras are not just any of those old surveillance cameras according to the post article they have state of the art zooming capabilities, which would be used to zoom into private apartments. some years ago i watched a bbc program about the london experience (where they have half a million cameras). and police there mentioned success stories like this one here in washington dc

Police have directed one arrest from the command center, a drug deal they spotted at a Northwest Washington gas station a few weeks ago. Officers called in vice units that surprised the suspect.  

 but what was an interesting learning from the london experience was that if at all they were able to just address petty crime, never where they able to prevent a serious crime (like murder), in those cases the camera could only be used after the murder had happened. more importantly there was little evidence of the deterrence impact of the cameras. and when they looked at what police officers where monitoring a majority was looking at women and blacks. unlike london washington though has a real crime problem.  and i doubt that these cameras will make a dent in the statistics if there is not going to be a dramatic change in the way the police operates. for example the cameras are located in high-crime areas. what happens if those crime areas move? maybe just around the corner? crime moves, what is a peaceful place today might be a drug deal area tomorrow. you might catch a criminal here and there, but just like speed cameras do not get rid of speeding they just move the crime to another area. that is why successful cities have put police on the street. and most of the police in DC sits usually in their car. just last night is saw a car parked on a side street of harvard street with a police officer sitting inside reading a paper (btw, in that area a drive by shooting happened in halloween with 41 shots being fired and a police officer sitting in a car a block away not hearing the shots). i know it is cold outside, or it might be raining, or it might be humid, but if you want to fight crime you can have police officers sit in their cars, or as they usually do, speed across town with speeds that don’t allow them to see anything going on around them. so safe the $4 million and get officers on the street. let me for once see a couple of police officers stroll down a street like you see them in london. if i can see the same officer in my neighborhood for a couple of weeks in a row, someone who gets to know people and store owners then we will make progress, not when we hang up cameras.