The UK is one of the most high-surveillance places on earth, I'm told. They believe in the power of putting cameras on street corners and police officers watching those cameras. Many crimes have been stopped or at least recorded for future prosecutions in this manner. The USA has nowhere near that many cameras on a per-capita basis.
Now we see citizens, pensioners actually, doing the same; a sort of 'Neighborhood Watch' but with still and video cameras. And the interesting thing - the police and neighbors describe how it makes them uncomfortable.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ing-high-tech-war-yobs.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Frankly, I'm a lot more concerned about police surveillance than I am that done by private citizens. If it's aimed at the street, then it violates neither laws nor ethics as far as I'm concerned. Admittedly, my experience is with the USA; here there is no legal expectation of privacy in a public place. If you pick your nose in public and someone takes a photo of it, well, that's your tough luck. And my concern with police surveillance is not that they stop or record crime, it's merely that I fret that often lines are crossed and what starts as legal surveillance of public areas goes beyond that. With private citizens, I'm not as worried - if they record where they are not allowed to by law, then they're committing a crime. But who arrests police when they cross lines like that? Anyway, I say hooray for the oldsters doing this. Can't understand why anyone would have a problem with it.
Now we see citizens, pensioners actually, doing the same; a sort of 'Neighborhood Watch' but with still and video cameras. And the interesting thing - the police and neighbors describe how it makes them uncomfortable.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ing-high-tech-war-yobs.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
On patrol with the the OAP vigilantes: The pensioners who are waging a high-tech war on yobs
The telescope in Albert Beher's high-rise flat is so powerful that, on cloudless summer nights such as these, it offers a remarkably clear view of the moon's cratered surface.
However, this gentleman prefers to use it for a more practical - and some would say questionable - purpose.
By rigging it up to a camcorder and a computer screen and training the high-powered lens down on the streets, he can capture in extraordinary detail the activity in every nook and cranny of his Leicester neighbourhood.
Frankly, I'm a lot more concerned about police surveillance than I am that done by private citizens. If it's aimed at the street, then it violates neither laws nor ethics as far as I'm concerned. Admittedly, my experience is with the USA; here there is no legal expectation of privacy in a public place. If you pick your nose in public and someone takes a photo of it, well, that's your tough luck. And my concern with police surveillance is not that they stop or record crime, it's merely that I fret that often lines are crossed and what starts as legal surveillance of public areas goes beyond that. With private citizens, I'm not as worried - if they record where they are not allowed to by law, then they're committing a crime. But who arrests police when they cross lines like that? Anyway, I say hooray for the oldsters doing this. Can't understand why anyone would have a problem with it.