February 1, 2007
Let's Talk About CCTV, Let's Talk About You and Me
Whether public surveillance cams make you feel all safe n’ cosy, or whether you find them an egregious infringement on your right to litter, tag, and engage in other anti-social behaviour, the Toronto Police Services Board wants to talk to you about it.
As many readers will recall, the TPSB recently ended a month long test of closed circuit cameras on Yonge near Dundas, and have said that the cameras are proving helpful in the investigation of a shooting that took place on December 30 (although not so helpful as to lead to the identification, location, or arrest of a suspect). Current plans call for a 6 month deployment of cameras starting April 30, 2007, in identified “high crime” areas in Scarborough, North York, Downtown Toronto, and the Entertainment District.
The TPSB have scheduled a series of public consultation meetings around the city over the next 3 weeks, after which the proposal will go forward whether you like it or not. For the full schedule of meetings, go here and click on “CCTV Consultation Schedule”.
Thanks to Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler for the tip.
Photo courtesy of Room929 via the Torontoist Flickr pool.
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...or whether you find them an egregious infringement on your right to litter, tag, and engage in other anti-social behaviour...
How about just being an infringement on our regular rights to privacy and not being spied on?
Sure - I'm not claiming that the two points of view I mentioned are the only ones possible.
Instead of cameras, the government should just hire people to follow an assigend person all day. "Operation: Stick Your' Man/Woman". It would create jobs. Sales of binoculars, radio wrist-watches and cool fedoras. It could even make stalkers respectable.
"Outside Your' balcony, I have a room with a view.
And I'm watching You".
- "Close to You"
-Queensryche
Hilariously upopular viewpoint though I expect this to be, if I'm on the street, you know, in plain view, I kind of expect that other people will be looking at me on occasion. So having CCTV cameras up - why should that bother me exactly? I don't do anything in the street that I would want to hide, because, I am, by definition, in public! I'm intrigued to the privacy I am further denied in the street by the appearance of CCTV.
Whilst I don't live in Toronto, I only wish I did, so perhaps I should just let you guys get on with it, but ignoring that...
During my distressingly brief stay one of the things I noticed was how nice it was *not* to see CCTV cameras everywhere. At home, in the UK, we make jokes about it and being watched - because it's the only way to deal with, essentially, being watched all the time. But it certainly feels nicer not to be watched everywhere you go.
Your experience of the UK must be different from mine. I have never felt "watched" there.
I felt very watched in London, although it never bothered me much. Some places are nuts though - at the New Scotland Yard building, there are so many cameras that I felt like I was in a big open air television studio.
OK, granted, privacy in public may not be the best way to put it. But, when you go out on the street, unless you see people who know you, you still move about with a certain degree of anonymity. People see you, or even watch you but they're not "watching" you. Do you act the same in a city where no one knows you as you do in your hometown? It's a different set of eyes, just like a camera is a different set of eyes. Who hasn't done something embarrassing in public and then looked around to see if anyone saw or noticed. Sometimes I feel like I could be on fire and no one would notice me. Also, remember...things and situations ARE NOT always what they appear to be. 10 people could watch the same video and interpret it 10 different ways.
I don't think I act differently in Glasgow or Toronto or LA or wherever I've been. Sure, we've all done embarrassing things in public, and I've almost certainly done them in front of a CCTV camera but you're as anonymous to the camera as you are to a person (and the cameras capture a street scene, it's not one camera per person.)
I won't argue that a system could be misused, but certainly in the UK I don't see vans full of coppers arriving to pick up a guy peeing in the street, or anything. I just think the "privacy" angle is ridiculous. I'm sure there's an argument against them that could sway me, but I can't think of it offhand.
There is a new documentary about video surveillance (CCTV) in Britain coming out, and this time, the topic seems to be covered in a more critical way. There's a trailer online:
http://www.EveryStepYouTake.org