Yesterday the SLOG wrote about the “unaccounted for” city surveillance cameras at 23rd & Cherry that popped up on monitors during a tour by city council members and the ACLU.
While they may have been a surprise to those parties, they shouldn’t be a surprise to CDNews readers who have been around for a while. We got all of the details on them last summer and wrote two long articles:
Digital Eyes on 23rd – Cameras Aid Shooting Investigation
More on Surveillance Cameras: Funding, How They Work
Note that at the time of the first story, our poll showed that only 8% of residents were opposed to the concept.
The issue was also discussed a couple months later on HugeAssCity.com (written by a CD resident)
The surveillance cameras have come under scrutiny recently, with the ACLU calling for the installations to be removed. According to the reporting from our friends at CHS, the city council is considering a set of options that range from expanding the program to shutting it all down and removing the equipment.
A camera at 23rd and Cherry, a notorious intersection for crime, seems like a great thing to me if we can manage to fund its use.
The ACLU receives funding from a large number of sources. For example, in 2004, the ACLU and its affiliate, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation reported revenues totaling $85,559,887
Hey, people do bad stuff in bathrooms, in their houses or apartments, why don’t we just put camera’s in there to? I mean if you have nothing to hide why not?
It seems nice to have this level of public security in place, but I sincerely fear that it will normalize the increased use of public cameras with little to no public oversight. If we don’t have access to the recordings, and are not allowed proper input on thier use and funding, then it is just another eye watching all of us. Not in favor.