The Security Camera: Has It Gone Too Far?

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I was recently reading in the Staten Island Advance, the local newspaper for Staten Island, NY that a graffiti artist was caught on camera graphitizing a wall. They published photos showing the attack and within a day the guy was caught and reprimanded to the criminal system.

Its things like this that make me believe that surveillance cameras are good things. They either prevent crime or find the person who has done it. But there are other places where I think security cameras have backfired. For example: The traffic light camera. People learn where they are and are so scared of getting a ticket they stop short, at a yellow light, right before the intersection that a traffic light camera is monitoring. It has caused accidents. And the city doesn’t tell you where these cameras are, so one day, you might not realize, and go through one.  At least in Philadelphia they have to put up signs saying that an intersection is traffic camera enforced. In other cities like NYC they don’t have too. It’s ridiculous too. Say there is a guy on your back bumper trying to make you go faster. In front of you the light is green but because this guy is distracting you go through the light not realizing it has turned red. Now the guy who was on your bumper has come to a stop but you have the ticket, its nuts. It’s not like you can fight a traffic light camera. The only thing you can do is pay it and not go through it again.

This is how cities around the country are making money. They can use their cops elsewhere while the camera does the patrolling. Is this right? Yes and no. Yes, in that if you are stupid enough to go through a red light you should get a ticket. No, in what if a cop, with his cop car lights flashing, and obviously needing to go somewhere, in a hurry, makes you go through the light and then you get a ticket for it? Then that is not right.

I knew someone who was stuck behind a buses stop sign arm with its lights flashing. A cop had his lights flashing and told her to move her car through the stop signal. She did. Then the cop pulls her over and gives her a ticket for doing what he wanted. I mean only in NYC right?

So it goes with traffic light cameras. There is always an excuse. My wife was pregnant. I had to get her to the hospital, ticket. A fire truck needed to pass me, ticket. It was snowing and I had a hard time seeing the lights signals, ticket. The road was full of ice and I slide into the intersection, ticket.

I thought I had heard it all when I heard this one.  I could not see the traffic light because it was blocked by a big bus and I assumed it was still green as I moved through the intersection I started to see it change. I beeped the bus to move but it had pulled into a bus stop and was keeping me in the intersection, ticket.

I have a computer that has a web camera. Do you know how many times I think to myself how do I know someone is not watching me on the thing? I mean if these criminal programmers can come up with viruses and spyware how do we know they are not snooping around on other things too?

So in once sense camera can be a wonderful tool, preventing crime. People can get so used to them, and they just become second nature to drivers or pedestrians. It is when they are abused that the public has to watch out. Remember, big brother is watching.