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October 19, 2006
ACLU on NY Proposal for Mandating Cameras in Bars
From ACLU press release regarding NYCLU testimony:
The New York City Council took testimony from the New York Civil Liberties Union on the proposed legislation requiring cabarets and dance clubs to install video surveillance at entrances and exits.
The NYCLU argued the critical questions were:
- Does the use of video surveillance cameras deter crime?
- Do video surveillance cameras provide greater public safety protection than the deployment of police or private security professionals?
- What are the relative costs and benefits of deploying trained security professionals as compared with video technology?
- Will legislation mandating the installation of video technology have the effect of shifting resources from the employment of security personnel to the installation of video surveillance technology?
- Would this shifting of resources provide the optimum value for each security dollar spent?
The first answer by the NYCLU was that the research does not show that cameras reduce crimes. The second answer focused on the potential for abuse and the chilling effect of cameras. They provided three examples.
- The NYPD archived hundreds if not thousands of hours of surveillance images captured during the 2004 Republican National Convention. Some of these images, involving protected First Amendment activity, were published by the New York Times as an "unofficial archive of police videotapes" four months after the RNC.
- A police department videotape of a suicide that occurred/took place in the Morris Houses, in the Bronx, found its way onto an Internet site devoted to pornography and violence.
- A WABC-TV Eyewitness News investigation of the police department's VIPER unit featured City Council Member Hiram Monserrate, a retired police officer, who described observing police officers engaging in video voyeurism – peering into the apartments of public housing residents and focusing cameras on women.
The rest of the testimony focused on how legislation can ensure that cameras are not abused.
Posted by rshah at October 19, 2006 07:51 PM
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