Surveillance Does Not Equal Safety, ACLU Says

Oct 16, 2007 4:27 PM

Americans are trading in their Bill of Rights for a bill of goods, the American Civil Liberties Union has warned.

Cities and counties, taking a cue -- and billions of dollars -- from the federal government, are buying into the idea that more surveillance translates into safer communities and a more secure nation, the group says.

And it's happening under the noses of a largely acquiescent public, Barbara Zerbe Macnab told The Contra Costa Times. She is chairwoman of the ACLU's Berkeley-Albany-Richmond-Kensington chapter in California. There is no public outrage," she says. "That's what frightens me most."

Macnab was on a panel with Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and ACLU attorney Nicole Ozer, reflecting on the theme "Government Surveillance 2007 -- 'Where Has Your Privacy Gone?' as part of the local chapter's annual meeting.

McLaughlin -- whose City Council recently allocated, despite her objections, $4 million to install 113 surveillance cameras -- attributed the increased use of the devices in America's public spaces to a "knee-jerk quick fix."

She spoke of a culture of fear stoked by a federal government less interested in safe neighborhoods than in collecting massive amounts of data on ordinary residents going about legal activities, the newspaper reported.

For the money, Richmond could have hired 100 community workers as peace-builders with far greater impact than "these intimidating machines," she argued.

"The presence of cameras is destructive to the open and free society we want in our country," McLaughlin said. "The electronic vigilantes do not help law enforcement solve crimes."

Proponents of the cameras say they provide valuable evidence for prosecuting crimes, and their very presence also prevent crimes, reports The Contra Costa Times.

London and Chicago have thousands of surveillance cameras. Bay Area cities with cameras, albeit in much smaller numbers, include San Francisco, and Berkeley is contemplating installing some, Ozer says. Several other Bay Area cities have cameras or plan to have them as well, she says.

British law enforcement officials have credited surveillance cameras with helping their investigation into the July 2005 London subway bombings after cameras picked up the four people suspected of the crimes.

But Ozer says the cameras were not instrumental in the police investigation.

"They didn't use them to identify the people that did it," Ozer says. "They just used the cameras to confirm" who did it.

The panelists also warned that untold numbers of private surveillance cameras, such as those in stores, shopping mall parking lots and office building lobbies, complement the public agency-owned cameras because companies routinely make recordings available to police.

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