"You Never Had Privacy, Winston..."

"You Never Had Privacy, Winston..." - Surveillance cameras are coming to downtown Minneapolis:

There already are hundreds of surveillance cameras downtown -- in parking ramps, in stores and on the streets. Many are private; a few are public but focus on traffic congestion.

But a gift by Target Corp. that was accepted Friday by the City Council would allow the installation of cameras focused on street activity and would tie them into a network at the downtown police precinct.

Police argue that it will make for a safer downtown. A video-watching cop can cover the same territory in three minutes that it might take a street cop more than half an hour to cover, Inspector Rob Allen said. Moreover, the cop watching on video can gain vital information to gauge how many units are needed to deal with an incident. And the video evidence can be saved for trial.

Inspector Allen goes on to ask:

"What's the difference between being watched by a cop on the street and being watched by a cop on closed-circuit TV?"

Because a cop on the street provides a commensurate deterrent. A camera can't respond to a mugging; a blue-and-white can.

Cameras (and the face-recognition software that people like the Minneapolis City Council will soon start rationalizing) don't make arrests, chase perps or scare the soft-core criminal into maybe waiting for another day to carry out their first mugging. All they're good for is watching people, with all the abuses that inevitably follow.

Posted by Mitch at June 10, 2003 07:32 AM