I C U

Surveillance cameras may prove helpful
By Kelvin Wade | | July 17, 2008 14:49

The city is testing a new surveillance camera system downtown. Five cameras have been installed in hopes of deterring, detecting and investigating crime. The system will undergo its first big test with the Tomato Festival next month. So how do you feel about Big Brother coming to Fairfield?

Video surveillance in America has nothing on the British. The British are the most watched people on earth with more than four million cameras, one for every 14 people. It's ironic that the country that gave us George Orwell's 1984 would embrace such Big Brother tactics. But Brits love their CCTV system and feel safer because of it.

Other European countries have followed Britain's lead and we're not far behind.

By now, we're used to being on camera. If you think about how many times you've been videotaped in your life, it's staggering. You can't walk into a department store, supermarket or convenience store without starring in a surveillance video. We have cameras in parks, gas stations and government buildings.

And with the ubiquitousness of cheap digital cameras and camera phones, no public place is free from the possibility of video recording.

While residents will feel safer going downtown knowing those cameras are there, it's important that they not develop a false sense of security. People still need to keep their wits about them. Remember that criminals aren't usually ones to put a lot of thought into their actions. Your dangling purse or open wallet may be a temptation that may overcome their fear of cameras.

After all, criminals commit enough crimes on video to fuel hours and hours of caught-in-the-act reality TV shows.

Some residents may feel, like the ACLU does, that such cameras are an invasion of privacy. But these cameras are placed in public places where there is no expectation of privacy.

On its Northern California Web site, the ACLU points to fears that cameras can detect things like which doctors a person sees, books they're reading and who they may be meeting on the street. These are all public things that anyone without a camera can observe.

It would be different if cameras were pointing into people's homes.

Civil libertarians also point to some studies that show CCTV systems only slightly deter crime. Cameras have been criticized for simply moving crime to other areas.

Of course cameras will push criminals to other areas. So will a cop walking a beat. That's how you lower crime in a given area. Plus, no one expects any surveillance system to deter or detect crime 100 percent of the time.

We have cameras in stores yet shoplifting still occurs daily. Robberies still take place.

One of the important roles a CCTV system plays is in the detection and investigation of crime. Cameras help identify suspects. They can give us an objective view of a given situation. And they help exonerate people as well.

If you recall, school video cameras played a helpful role in the racial incident at Rodriguez High earlier this year where two youths dragged a teddy bear behind their car.

So while the jury may be out on cameras deterring desperate criminals, they are excellent evidentiary tools to aid police in identifying suspects.

As for Big Brother, my big brothers have always made me feel safer. Peace.
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The issues of security and civil liberties are really big in the news these days. The more fearful people are, the more they're willing to trade in their civil liberties. That's how we get things like that FISA bill passing. In a democracy like ours, our rights are taken away. We just have a government that frightens the public into giving them away.

With that said, I'm not concerned about the privacy implications of public surveillance cameras. If you're in public, there is no expectation of privacy. I know there's a concern about the invasion of privacy by the government but public video cameras aren't going to pick up anything more than a government agent could observe on the street.

CCTV is here to stay. It's going to expand. And it's helped to solve many crimes that otherwise would've gone unsolved.

This week, I have my take on Barack Obama and Iraq on DR Other Side blog.

Also, a trip down memory lane on the Wading In blog.