Dec 13, 2006 3:54 pm US/Eastern
NYCLU: Security Cameras Could Be Abused
Spying Eyes Have Quintupled In NYC Since 1998
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
The number of surveillance cameras in downtown Manhattan has more than quintupled in the past seven years, according to a report by a civil liberties group.
Surveyors hunting for security cameras visible from public streets found 4,176 of the electronic eyes on blocks south of 14th Street during a canvass last year, up from 769 in the same area in 1998, said the New York Civil Liberties Union.
In some districts, they found lenses spying on nearly every block, keeping a 24-hour watch over everything from office building lobbies to neighborhood bodegas.
A majority of the cameras were owned by private businesses -- not the government -- but NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said that doesn't mean people shouldn't feel a little creepy about their every move being recorded.
"The potential for abuse is enormous," she said. "In our country, we have a history of dirty tricks with surveillance material. We know that bad stuff is happening."
Images from private cameras can end up on the Internet, or be used to blackmail someone captured in an embarrassing moment, she said. And, for better or worse, almost any tape from any source can be obtained by law enforcement.
Those images can be of tremendous value to police investigating a crime, but they could also be misused if no rules are in place as to how they are gathered or stored, Lieberman said.
The group called on the City Council to enact guidelines governing when and how city agencies can conduct surveillance. It also wants periodic reviews of such programs to make sure they are conducted ethically.
Cameras have been proliferating in the city for a decade for a variety of reasons.
Technological advances have made it relatively cheap for merchants and other business owners to install video monitoring devices that record excellent images around the clock. The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks also fueled the installation of cameras near potential terrorist targets.
Thousands of cameras are now scheduled to be installed in the city's subway system. Housing officials maintain more than 3,000 cameras in low-income apartment complexes. The New York Police Department has begun installing hundreds of cameras in high-crime areas.
The NYCLU said it had originally intended to catalog the location of every street camera in Manhattan, but abandoned the effort when it realized there would be too many cameras to count.
Instead, it concentrated on downtown neighborhoods, from Greenwich Village to the financial district to Chinatown. The group also counted 292 cameras in part of Harlem.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Stumble It!
Comments