Cameras Help Cops Catch a Killer

CrazedWalrus writes "Philadelphia police recently captured a serial killer with the help of a combination of Homeland Security and private surveillance cameras. Police examined video from 50 different cameras and pieced together relevant footage from 12 of them, and eventually were able to identify the murderer. Once caught, he confessed to several other murders spanning the past eight years. Without these cameras this killer would probably be stalking the streets of Philadelphia today. With results like that, is there really a good basis for argument against these cameras?"

Comments

Re:I don't have a problem.

[it0]

What if the cameras are only there to watch for criminal activity? What if all other activity is disregarded? Does it make you pause to think that maybe you're a tad paranoid?

The kind of slippery slope argument you're using here works both ways. Yes, cameras can be abused. But what if they aren't being abused and never will be?

Because in the end we are dealing with humans. In the netherlands we have a policy that if there hasn't happened anything within X time then all the material needs to be destroyed.
The material can only be accessed by police officers.

I would say there is little to no corruption in the netherlands but after investigating 30 cities it turned out that the above 2 rules in most of them were not followed.

Next to that there are some more disadvantages:

* Crime does not disappear, it just moves to where there are no camera's
* When there are camera's everywhere, why should you care about crime, somebody else is taking care of it.
* What about the future with face recognition, etc. You are standing too long in one place, etc.
* Also new laws/city ordanances are introduced like you are not allowed to wear a mask, else the camera system will not work, i.e. you cannot be recognised. However since you have done nothing wrong why do you have to identified? In the netherlands we are required to carry identification but we only have to show it when we are suspect of something with a clear reason!!!