Decline and Fall
Feb 23rd, 2009 @ 9:27 am
Cambridge rejects Homeland Security surveillance cameras
The Boston Globe reports that The Cambridge, MA, City Council voted unanimously on February 2 to block the activation of eight surveillance cameras already installed and paid for by the Department of Homeland Security. Communities across the country have accepted Department of Homeland Security grants to install and network surveillance cameras in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks. Often, as in nearby Boston, MA, there was no public discussion of the installation and operation of the cameras and no vote was ever taken.
In Cambridge, however, city councilors were concerned not only about privacy issues raised by residents, but also by the secrecy of the four to six year grant process and the continuing lack of information regarding the proposed use of the cameras. Briefings in January by the police commissioner and fire chief failed to provide sufficient answers. Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons complained: “We don’t know how they’re going to be operated. We don’t know how they’re going to be governed. We don’t know who’s going to have access to the information that they collect.”
Cambridge is believed to be the first community in this country to reject government use of surveillance cameras. Law enforcement officials argue that the cameras are necessary to monitor potential targets of terrorist activity, and that they also prove useful in criminal investigations and emergency traffic control. The Cambridge City Council remained unconvinced that, as a matter of public policy, the security benefits of surveillance cameras outweigh the potential damage to civil liberties.
