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For Security, Not Big Brother 8/2/05 |
Security cameras, it seems, are becoming a vital tool in the war on terrorism, raising provocative questions about where and how they should be used. Where lies the safe path between the specter of terrorism and the specter of Big Brother?
London, which installed cameras in its subway system after years of IRA bombings, appears to have found part of the answer.
Within 24 hours of the botched bombing attempts in the city's Underground on July 21,
surveillance images of four suspects flashed around the world. That produced thousands of tips and the arrest of all four, including one who had fled to Italy. Suspects in the bombings that killed 56 Londoners two weeks earlier also were identified.
Surveillance cameras were commonplace even before the war on terror — at ATMs, convenience stores and parking garages. More are on the way.
The Department of Homeland Security is giving $800 million to 50 cities this year to help set up surveillance systems, and not just to stop terrorists:
- In Los Angeles, eight cameras installed last year in crime-ridden MacArthur Park helped police make more than 600 arrests.
- In Chicago, 250 cameras are being added in high-crime areas and linked to 2,000 cameras that monitor highways and public buildings. The cameras have helped drive crime rates to 40-year lows.
An active imagination sees a 1984-like world in those developments. But there is a common denominator among government cameras deployed so far, and it suggests a sensible dividing line.
They all monitor public spaces. It is illogical to say that
CCTV Cameras should not be able to see what any police officer, or citizen, or private photographer can freely observe and record. No city has the manpower or money to station an officer at every intersection. Cameras can help fill that gap.
The problems lie more in how the
CCTV Cameras are used. No one would dispute their value in identifying terrorists or major criminals. Many already have questioned their value as automated dispensers of tickets for "gotcha" misdemeanors such as traffic violations or littering. In at least one instance, camera operators have been disciplined for voyeurism.
Properly regulated
surveillance systems reduce crime and save lives. Big Brother hasn't arrived just yet. Source: usatoday |
