Blog: Are Surveillance Cameras Good Security or an Invasion of Privacy?

This week on the CNN website, there appeared an article in which a noted law professor voiced his concerns about the loss of our personal privacy and civil liberties because of the increased number of surveillance cameras cities are installing.( Neil Richards is a professor of law at Washington University. He is the author of the recent Harvard Law Review article, "The Dangers of Surveillance.".  )

"The Boston Marathon bombings are setting off a series of suggestions about how we fight terrorism like this and one item that some people think will help is to install more surveillance cameras in public areas. Professor Richards says:  “This would be a mistake. This would be dangerous to oiur civil liberties.”

His reason for rejecting more cameras are that they are expensive and require a healthy budget for repairs, which may negatively impact monies needed for other services like police, firefighting and schools.  He also maintains that cameras don’t deter crimes. They simply report them if they are in the right place at the right time.  Professor Richardspoints out that more cameras and police would lead to a police state that Boston Police Commissioner, Ed Davis says even he doesn’t want.

Richards is also reluctant to increase cameras on the streets because with advanced technology that is now available “such a system could conceivably give the government increased power over us, power that could be used not just to monitor, but in some cases, potentially, to blackmail, persuadeor discriminate.

Less privacy, less civil liberties. Being constantly observed might make us feel slightly safer, but this would be only an illusion of safety. History has shown repeatedly that broad government surveillance powers inevitably get abused, whether by the Gestapo, the Stasi, or our own FBI, which engaged in unlawful surveillance (and blackmail) of "dangerous" people like Martin Luther King Jr”

This is a rather contentious issue. We have to admit that surveillance cameras definitely expedited the Boston investigation.  But do we want them everywhere?   Is it a privacy and civil liberties issue or just good  proactive security planning?