Legal Commentary

ACLU Launches "You Are Being Watched"

By Jeralyn

The ACLU has launched a new website, You Are Being Watched, "dedicated to tracking the spread of government video surveillance systems throughout American cities. " (From their press release, which should be available here shortly):

“The new site will provide one-stop shopping for users, including the press, who want to know the big picture and the fine details about the spread of video surveillance systems....

The new site will serve as an information clearinghouse to track the deployment of government-run surveillance systems across the United States. It includes a flash map of the United States showing the location of cities that have installed municipal surveillance cameras, a compendium of press clips and other information about camera deployments, links to studies on the effectiveness of surveillance cameras, and other information about the issue.

Video surveillance will not make us safer. It only makes us less free. [More...]

Study after study has shown that video cameras do not work to control crime. Yet DHS appears to be hell-bent upon pushing police video surveillance into American life – and unfortunately, an increasing number of US cities appear to be taking them up on their offer.”

Public video surveillance threatens to fundamentally change the nature of our public spaces, and we need to track what is happening,” added Steinhardt. “There are few good sources of information about the spread of video surveillance in the United States – we get regular media requests for such a source – and now we have created it.”

The site also has a "take action" feature where you can send a message to the head of Homeland Security asking that the department stop funding local government video surveillance systems.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 12, 2009 (boomark / email).