Thursday, September 17, 2009

Who watches the watchers?

Cameras keep track of all cars entering Medina | Seattle Times Newspaper

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A safe community is attractive to residents and businesses. Keeping crime at a low level means residents will be more likely to spend more time outside their homes spending money at local businesses. However, people won't feel safe if their individual liberties appear to be infringed. The cameras in Medina are being used to spot criminals by running license plates. The trend may spread as more municipalities are faced with laying off police officers due to budget cuts. Cameras don't require health care or pensions. But cameras can be programmed to look at more than just license plates, at least that's what many residents will fear. Cameras are fixed in place which means criminals will eventually either avoid those areas or figure out a way of destroying the cameras. Regardless, we need to be vigilant that as our technology becomes more prevalent in maintaining a safe community that we also don't see our individual liberties eroded.

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