Cameras, Cameras Everywhere

Ever since the public learned that surveillance cameras helped British authorities identify suspects behind last month's foiled car bomb attacks in London, politicians and security experts have called for similar systems in the United States. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, has called for more electronic surveillance systems. New York City is adding to its 4,200 cameras scattered throughout the city. It plans to have by the end of the year more than 100 cameras watching traffic in Lower Manhattan to read license plates. Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as Boston and Baltimore, also have camera surveillance systems.

But the debate on whether the camera surveillance systems are something that we want as a society is revving up. "Under such constant surveillance, you will find yourself becoming painfully conscious of being observed, recorded and judged," wrote John Whitehead, founder of the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties group. "Without realizing it, you will begin to censor your own actionsâ€"in regard to even the most innocuous of things." (The same point was made by George Washington University law prof David Solove.)

In an interview with National Public Radio today, Cortez Trotter, Chicago's former chief of emergency management, explained that the Chicago security officials tried to assuage privacy concerns by meeting with the American Civil Liberties Union and the business community about the city's camera surveillance system before it was built. Privacy was built into the system, he said, such as putting blinders on some cameras and limiting how much the camera can pan to keep it from peering into office buildings.

Despite the concerns, surveillance seemingly will only become more ubiquitous. Look at what's being planned for the next generation of surveillance.

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