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April 10, 2008
For Your Own Good
The police in Washington DC want to access to a network of surveillance cameras so as to better fight crime. From yesterday's Washington Times
D.C. officials are giving police access to more than 5,000 closed-circuit TV cameras citywide that monitor traffic, schools and public housing -- a move that will give the District one of the largest surveillance networks in the country."The primary benefit of what we're doing is for public health and safety," said Darrell Darnell, director of the city's Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, who announced the initiative along with Mayor Adrian M. Fenty yesterday.
There are some 5,200 already in place, and they're operated by the public schools or housing authority. What's new here is that if this initiative passes the police will be able to use them.
Not to worry, though, right? Won't they only be used to stop drug deals?
Consider how they're used right now across the pond.
From the Daily Mail (h/t Mark Steyn at NRO)
Digital speed cameras which capture drivers smoking or eating at the wheel are being introduced nationwide in a new move to hammer motorists.Drivers will also face fines, bans and even jail for infringements such as driving without a seatbelt, using a hand-held mobile phone or overtaking across double white lines.
The hi-tech DVD cameras, which have instant playback, will also be used to provide photographic evidence against those eating sandwiches or rolling-up cigarettes at the wheel.
These are now considered serious offences under new guidelines drawn up for prosecutors
This in a country where the street crime and burglary is high and going nowhere but up.
The good news for residents of Washington DC is that council members are at least "wary" of their mayor's plan.
Conservatives like me normally bash groups like the ACLU, but this time they're right in their criticism of such plans. They even have a section of their website on the public video surveillance.
So, will our cameras eventually be used to peer into our car windows to see if we're eating while driving? Maybe and maybe not.
But we do know that in recent years we've seen the obsession with public safety taken to lengths never before thought possible. It was one thing to ban smoking in the workplace, quite another to to outlaw "trans fats" in restaurants. Maybe soon we'll be told that unless we acquiesce to laws against eating while driving, we're ogres who want to see people die needlessly, and if they're injured "we all pay for it".
Liberals are worried about FISA court this and FISA court that, and while I understand their concern I'm far more worried about the nanny-state police who want to put a camera on every telephone pole "for your own good".
Posted by Tom at April 10, 2008 9:00 PM
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Comments
It's a difficult issue. Having been a resident of DC, most of that time on Capitol Hill, crime was always a huge concern. If cameras helped identify and remove the perps who were victimizing the citenzry that would be a good thing.
But the issue of mission creep is a valid one. Especially if the District uses these cameras to fine people for relatively mild offenses.
Will the District be able to do the right thing here? Have they ever?
Posted by: Mike's America 
at April 11, 2008 11:28 AM
>>If cameras helped identify and remove the perps who were victimizing the citenzry that would be a good thing.>>
Maybe. But it sounds more like it is being directed more towards traffic infringements (read "fineable infractions') than crime. Additionally, what happens to those who commit the crimes? If they're not caught, or if caught are given easy or no punishment, where's the gain? Our justice system seems to have become a farce - not because of the arrests, but of probations, short sentences, early releases etc. Personally, I'd prefer a Sheriff Joe Arpaio approach to prisons. I think if his general approach were to be adopted nation wide, we'd have fewer problems.
Additionally, the hard core prisoners operate out of prison. Death sentences or isolation - total isolation - needs to come back in cases of known prison gang and gang leaders. We're sending young men into prisons where they get hard core training from professional criminals.
The cameras will catch the dumb ones.
Posted by: suek at April 11, 2008 12:28 PM
There are already cameras all over the city that are monitored by police - for four years now. Not one single criminal has been caught using those cameras nor has it detered crime an iota. It's just another way for the District to hire more people to sit on their ample behinds and do nothing. In order for the cops in DC to arrest people, they'd have to get out of their cars - that ain't happenin'.
This is just the way politicians in DC to try and convince people they're concerned about crime these days without actually having to do something effective.
Posted by: Jonn Lilyea at April 11, 2008 2:10 PM
I came home to my apartment complex in Oakland the other day, unlocked the outer security, and found this hilarious note pasted by the mailboxes:
---"If anyone saw the people who stole the security cameras, please provide information on their identity to the management.
Thank you, The Management"------
Posted by: jason at April 11, 2008 4:37 PM
kinda funny, we can't do this things to catch terrorists but we can do this to our own citizens
Posted by: Ron K at April 18, 2008 7:15 AM
