“Security” cameras don’t make us safer

From Bruce Schneier today:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has requested more than $2 billion to finance grants to state and local governments for homeland security needs. Some of this money is being used by state and local governments to create networks of surveillance cameras to watch over the public in the streets, shopping centers, at airports and more. However, studies have found that such surveillance systems have little effect on crime, and that it is more effective to place more officers on the streets and improve lighting in high-crime areas. There are significant concerns about citizens’ privacy rights and misuse or abuse of the system. A professor at the University of Nevada at Reno has alleged that the university used a homeland security camera system to surreptitiously watch him after he filed a complaint alleging that the university abused its research animals.

Bruce’s full comments and his source material.

I think the Department of Homeland Security should change it’s name to the Citizen Monitoring and Intimidation for the Sake of Inefficiency Bureau. All cameras do is open up new opportunities for the authorities to abuse their authority. When crimes are deterred by cameras, it’s only because they move the crime out of view. Unless society is willing to be watched everywhere all the time, then cameras are just another layer of government we don’t need, can’t afford and won’t benefit from.

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