Vista's camera is watching
By: North County Times Editorial - 3/30/2006 | ∞
Our view: Deputies public spying system offends liberty
Vista deputies seem just delighted with their new, $20,000 spy camera, which is capable of secretly watching people for days at a time. We are decidedly less thrilled.
It is hard to imagine a more blatant and offensive invasion of privacy: Government officials using a hidden camera to record ordinary folks as they go about their business. This is downright creepy.
Sheriff's deputies hasten to explain that they will spy only on public areas with the camera, which is disguised as a utility box and capable of beaming days' worth of video signals to remote receivers. The cops say that they intend to watch public areas where crime has been a problem.
Indeed, officials say that if they decide to secretly install their camera across the street from your house, their computer is capable of blacking out the view through your bedroom window.
Of course, we predicted that police cameras were next after North County cities began installing those infernal red-light cameras. We are sorry to be right on this one.
Of course, there are some who say that if someone isn't committing a crime, what's the big deal? After all, deputies have better things to do than stare at innocent folks walking the dog or struggling to parallel park.
And federal police have been using cameras to bust mob bosses for decades. Besides, with a week of video records to work with, Vista deputies can easily catch the punks who sprayed all that grafitti or mugged that little old lady.
Yet it's pretty easy to grasp how creepy and invasive the Vista cops are poised to become. Instead of a camera, imagine that a man stood on your corner, simply watching. After a few hours of watching this guy watch you pruning the bushes and taking the kids to school, you would surely call the police to report a stalker or Peeping Tom, especially if his spot on the corner offered him a view through the living room window.
Students of police power have observed for centuries that officials always have a darn good reason to trample privacy and liberty in pursuit of greater security. Cops and prosecutors always want more authority ---- and they always must be limited.
At the foundation of liberty is the right to walk down the street and be left alone; to travel with some degree of anonymity. Governments shouldn't be watching people, tracking movements, recording purchases, compiling data, reading mail, or anything else unless they first have good reason for suspicion. If somebody breaks a law, by all means police should go get them.
But officials must not watch a vast public just in case something happens.
Police could solve far more crimes if they just installed cameras in everybody's living rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms. No more domestic violence, no more child abuse, no more pot smoking.
To be sure, a secret camera mounted in a public place is different. But not much. Hundreds of private, innocent people will be captured on Vista's spy recordings.
What's fair is fair, we suppose. So we also stand ready to oppose any plans to install video cameras to record the people who visit the homes and offices of Vista's council members, San Diego County supervisors and Sheriff Bill Kolender.
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esteban wrote on Mar 29, 2006 6:38 PM:Wow...the NC Times is against crime fighting. They support the fact that most crimes go unwitnessed and unreported. I hope that if they are successful in getting the camera thrown away, then I hope one of their loved ones gets viciously assaulted where the camera would have been, then the cops would have said, "Well, if only we had the camera, we could have caught them." Bunch of idiots at the newspaper. That's why I read it from the Internet for free instead of paying for a subscription.
Dave wrote on Mar 29, 2006 6:50 PM:As I commented before, "Hello Big Brother!"
Right on Esteban wrote on Mar 29, 2006 7:27 PM:Hey Esteban, What can we expect from a bunch of crybabies who are upset over a red light ticket issued by a camera? There's a saying in the criminal justice system: Pound on the facts. If you can't pound on the facts, pound on the evidence. If you can't pound on the evidence, pound on the cops. If you can't pound on the cops, POUND ON THE TABLE! Can't wait and see how many are apprehended by these cameras!!
Andrew wrote on Mar 29, 2006 8:20 PM:Well! Catching criminals is a bad thing? What planet does the NCT live on? Law abiding citizens have nothing to worry about and the criminals do. Who would have thought that catching criminals in the act lowers crime? Certainly not the NCT...
Jaice wrote on Mar 29, 2006 8:22 PM:This is weird 1984 kind of stuff. Am I living in a sci-fi book where paranoid fear of anybody walking in the park with you justifies intrusions into the privacy of thousands of innocent residents? Might we weigh the risk of being a victim of the petty theft and vandalism (not to mention minor drug busts) that accounts for most of Vista's crimes to the creepy spying on innocent citizens during their daily routines? The equation seems off...
fred wrote on Mar 29, 2006 9:04 PM:Any time you walk in a casino or most stores now days your on camera,Hellow...let's sharpen up here.Escondido could use about 25 of these ,train some volunteers and tag some of those taggers.
BM wrote on Mar 29, 2006 9:10 PM:I agree with Esteban. Since when does anyone (including the people at NCTIMES) have ANY expectation of privacy in (GASP) public? This world is full of cameras, red light ones notwithstanding. Virtually every retail store has video cameras, many restaurants - most major tourist attractions - Disneyland, Knotts, Etc. Do you really think the police care if you are walking your dog at 8:25? There is a world of difference between the government having video cameras on public streets and bugging your house. Night and day! What about the police helicopters? They can see right down into everyone's yard? Is this wrong? They also catch crooks. NCTIMES as usual is only looking to sell papers. Nothing more!
Pancho wrote on Mar 29, 2006 9:13 PM:Train the camera on the former Albertson's shopping center across from Vista High. Forward the footage to Immigration. ICE can pick up the illegal alien student protesters and deport them. This will put an end to the disruption of our school system by cowards using threats and intimidation.
Jack wrote on Mar 29, 2006 9:45 PM:Put them all in jail!
Mike wrote on Mar 29, 2006 11:39 PM:Why is the North County Times always so far out in space. The cops can watch me walking down the street while I pick at my underwear. I might have a problem with a newspaper having that footage but not the cops! But I bet those criminals don't want to be seen stealing those cars or vandalizing others property. Sounds like a no brainer to me put that camera to work!!!!!
Tom wrote on Mar 30, 2006 6:12 AM:Put those camaras at the day laborer pick up sites and beam it to ICE. We Ha!
harry wrote on Mar 30, 2006 6:19 AM:When the video camera caught the image of hoodlums beating homeless men in Florida, it lead to their arrest. The camera prevented further violence and murder against the vulnerable. I was more than glad that they had the video. "What you do in the dark shall be brought to light." I hope the Vista experiment helps to lower crime. I have been the object of pictures being taken by police when I was less than approving. When I demonstrated in anti war and civil rights rallies, the local cops routinely took pictures of the crowd, and in rural Alabama in the 60's where the Klan and the Sheriff's office worked in tandem--that was intimidation and worse. I don't mind randomly placed camera's in public areas where there is high crime. It might be a deterent.
wendlin wrote on Mar 30, 2006 6:41 AM:Wise up. Our government is evolving very close to the way that Germany evolved before and into world war two. Difference is, that technology is more advanced and is used as an excuse for such things as control(and surveylance) of the population. Read some history, and sit back and look around you. Cameras, red light or otherwise are distasteful and not needed. This is dangerous for our freedoms.
BM wrote on Mar 30, 2006 7:50 AM:Wendlin - apples and oranges. You are just paranoid. I say if you have nothing to hide what do you care? We are talking PUBLIC places here, not your bedroom. It's called security.
Ha ha! wrote on Mar 30, 2006 8:07 AM:To the anonymous NCT staffer who wrote this: Remember, just because you are paranoid doesn't mean people aren't out to get you. Try wearing a metal colander on your head, and line it with tinfoil. That will keep out the BAAAAAAAAD rays...
John wrote on Mar 30, 2006 8:46 AM:So who monitors the spy videos? Someone does have to review the tapes, right? How else would they know if they were catching criminals? Is it done by a specialist in video surveillance or by committee back at the office with coffee and donuts? Why not just send a deputy out to do the job of crime deterrence in the first place? Oh yea, I forgot - someone might see them.
Greg wrote on Mar 30, 2006 10:06 AM:To the writer of the editorial: You're worried about privacy, but you don't seem to be too worried about safety. Those public places that they plan on monitoring - probably places such as parks, etc - do you feel safe walking in them at night? I don't. Why? Because of a group of people called criminals. If I engaged in illegal activity, then yeah, I'd be concerned about a camera. Since the citizens aren't allowed to protect themselves (a whole 'nother issue), I think this is the lesser of two evils. Now if the justice system would just keep those criminals locked up once they're caught, we'd be set.......
Andrea wrote on Mar 30, 2006 10:14 AM:I'm torn on this one. If there is high crime there, perhaps there is another option than a video camera, maybe more frequent patrols by police. I wouldn't like to live on a busy street across from a camera even if it probably wasn't aimed at my house or bedroom windows, it would be creepy. I'm all for fighting crime, but I think of the future. Right now it's only one camera, later there will be many more. Eventually there could be one on every street. Maybe they shouldn't allow the cameras anywhere near residential areas. It just all seems like the beginning of that Tom Cruise movie Minority Report.
marky v wrote on Mar 30, 2006 12:26 PM:PLEASE STOP VIOLATING MY RIGHTS AND PRIVACY. EVERYDAY THAT I WAKE UP THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING THAT MAKES ME HATE aUTHORITYIES FOR. GIVE ME BACK MY FREE COUNTY.... U.S.A LAND OF FREEDOM AND RIGHTS.
Charlie wrote on Mar 30, 2006 12:33 PM:Never thought I'd see the day,--mobs of people would parade the streets of America under the flag of a foreign country! They should ask why things were so bad where they came from,--that they had to leave!
im not worried wrote on Mar 30, 2006 6:59 PM:im sure the camera is already installed in the townsite neighborhood.
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