Via the Washington Post, Hagarstown, MD is receiving $900,000 in federal grants to build an elaborate video camera and surveillance “public safety network” throughout the town.
Police Chief Arthur Smith says the department will use the money to link computer, radio, in-car, video camera and other systems for top efficiency.One component will be video cameras. Smith hopes to double the amount of cameras downtown to 60.Thermal imagers, in-car cameras, a supervisor command vehicle camera and moveable cameras will also be purchased.
The amount of computer surveillance and monitoring this system will be capable of is impressive. Their goal appears to be a massive surveillance infrastructure, where there will be no place in town that your actions are not monitored and recorded by the police.
But does everyone agree that this is a good thing? Civil liberties and privacy advocates are sure to be suspicious of this government intrusiveness in our lives.
And it is all happening without any public debate as to what we think is reasonable. The technological capabilities are far ahead of the desires of the citizens.
Already there are widespread license plate scanners tracking an monitoring our driving habits.
We are certainly happy when they are used to quickly identify and track stolen cars, or even find fugitives wanted for failure to appear on a court warrant.
We may be a little more suspicious and skeptical if we are stopped for having a suspended drivers license that we weren’t notified of.
So, where are the limits of what the public things is a reasonable level of monitoring and tracking of ordinary citizens?
We should have that debate now, before the government security infrastructure is fully embedded and impossible to stop.
More details here.
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