Are we becoming a surveillance society?

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A camera hangs with a street light, outside the U.S. Capitol.

Featured Topic | Posted 1 year 45 weeks ago

Are we becoming a surveillance society?

Surveillance cameras already dot the streets of major American cities. Now Miami is taking it to the next level, preparing to launch camera-equipped drones -- like the ones used by the military overseas -- that will fly above the city to spy for crime below. That has raised concerns from civil liberties groups like the ACLU. Is the U.S. becoming a surveillance society? What's the right tradeoff between safety and privacy?

Ben likes: Surveillance cameras cannot prevent terrorism

Jim Harper/National Review Online

Surveillance cameras do have forensic value that can help authorities catch suspects after crimes have already been committed. The problem with this is that, for obvious reasons, suicide attackers tend not to worry about being caught afterwards. Antiterrorism strategies should be geared towards prevention; that is how lives are saved. The U.K. contains over 4.2 million surveillance cameras — one for every 14 people — and the Glasgow attackers still eluded detection until it was too late. The only reason there were no fatalities was the attackers’ own amateurishness.

In a further blow to the perceived effectiveness of surveillance cameras, Clive Norris of the Sheffield University Centre for Criminological Research testified last year that researchers found that Glasgow crime did not decrease after cameras were installed city-wide. It actually increased by nine percent.

Senator Lieberman's proposal for stepping up surveillance has other problems besides ineffectiveness. Corruption could become an issue. This has already happened in a number of U.S. cities that have installed cameras at traffic intersections to deter drivers from running red lights.

Joel likes: Insecurity cameras

William Pentland/The Nation

"I do think that in this day and age, if you think that cameras aren't watching you, you are very naïve," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in October during a tour of London's massive surveillance-camera system. "We are under surveillance all the time. We live in a dangerous world and people want to have security cameras." Bloomberg added that everyone he had met in London was "thrilled" about the security cameras around the city.

The government has a long and storied history of abusing surveillance powers. The more powerful surveillance technology grows, the more Bill Brown gets concerned. "When consumer convenience merges with law enforcement, merges with the military-industrial complex, this is what I worry about. Not today, not tomorrow, but the day after."