Lights, camera, surveillance!
It took two votes, reports the N&O (registration required), but the Durham City Council decided this week to install surveillance cameras in certain areas of the city to deter crime.
The N&O reports that the council wrestled with the specter of Big Brother versus the effect the cameras can have on would-be criminals thinking twice before defacing property, breaking and entering or accosting innocent people.
I'm a bit worried about extending the reach of Big Brother myself. There’s always a danger of such technology being abused to invade law-abiding citizens’ privacy. That concern was broached some months ago when the Greensboro City Council briefly considered such an approach.
Then I thought about the recent rash of robberies in the Battleground area and the idiots who defaced Bicentennial Park. I also thought about continuing problems with graffiti throughout the city.
Big Brother didn’t sound half as bad anymore.
Comments (1)
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I think you'll find that the camera proposals involve public areas. Acts done in public have little, if any, expectation of privacy.
Common sense dicatates that if you don't want someone to see you doing something, don't do it in a public place.
I seem to recall that sometime ago protesters in downtown Greensboro were all a-tither about the police videoing their acts in public but welcomed the news cameras capturing the same acts. You can't have it both ways. A video camera has no idea who's operating it.
Posted on March 10, 2007 4:31 PM