Musings from Brian J. Noggle: Reynolds Overlooks Benefit of Surveillance Camera

Reynolds Overlooks Benefit of Surveillance Camera

In a post on Tech Central Station, Professor Reynolds overlooks certain benefits of surveillance cameras. The professor says:

As a deterrent, at least, they were a failure. Civil libertarians fear these cameras, with some reason (my guess is that they'll be used more to catch parking scofflaws and to dig up dirt on political opponents than to reduce crime or terrorism) but the real story is their ineffectiveness. Every cop sitting in a control room, eating doughnuts and watching monitors, could be out on the street, looking at things with his or her own eyes and in a position to do something about what he or she sees. Nonetheless, the response to the London bombings will probably include a call for more, not fewer, cameras.

That's a mistake. As Jeffrey Rosen wrote in a superb essay published just after 9/11 (but sadly no longer available online), London's "ring of steel" camera network never caught a terrorist...

Professor Reynolds overlooks the following benefits (to the watchers, anyway):

T and A.

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:49 AM