The town of Eagleville, Tenn., is not the only small town seeking to install a sophisticated video surveillance system. Since Sept. 11, communities nationwide have increasingly turned to video surveillance cameras as anti-terrorism and crime-fighting tools.

Many communities have established systems with the latest high-technology features, creating powerful and intelligent networks of cameras. Residents generally believe the cameras will make communities safer, and they seldom seem concerned about potential intrusions on their privacy rights or civil liberties. Most of us seem to believe that individuals have no legitimate “expectation of privacy” once they leave their homes and step into the public streets.

But even if you were not doing anything illegal, would you be completely comfortable with having your every movement recorded and available for later review? What if you were filmed entering an infertility clinic, an Alcoholics Anonymous gathering, or the meeting of a controversial political group? What if your movements were stored in a digital database readily searchable by the government? What if organizations or individuals outside the government had access to the film? When you think about it, wouldn’t you like to set some limits on what the government can film and on what may be done with the footage?

If communities establish video surveillance systems, they should do so only after carefully evaluating the purpose and design of the system. To promote such an approach, the Constitution Project has issued Guidelines for Public Video Surveillance, a set of bipartisan consensus recommendations, as well as model legislation to enable communities to easily enact the guidelines into law (www.constitutionproject.org).

Finding common ground

The Constitution Project is an independent think tank in Washington, D.C., that promotes and defends constitutional safeguards by bringing together liberals and conservatives who share a common concern about preserving civil liberties. The guidelines were produced by our Liberty and Security Initiative, a bipartisan group of former government officials, scholars, business leaders and other experts, that works to protect Americans’ civil liberties even as we work to enhance our nation’s security.

The Constitution Project’s guidelines demonstrate that communities can establish video surveillance systems that protect residents’ privacy rights and civil liberties. We recommend that before installing a permanent surveillance system, the community’s government should conduct an open review process — with an opportunity for public input — outlining the precise geographic scope and capabilities of the proposed system, and evaluating its potential impact on residents’ privacy rights and civil liberties. Systems should be specifically designed to minimize intrusions on residents’ privacy. For example, technologies like “digital masking” should be used to hide the identities of people incidentally captured on camera who are irrelevant to any criminal investigation. Further, there should be regular audits to review how the system is being used.

Following such procedures, communities can design surveillance systems that will protect residents’ privacy rights and civil liberties in addition to their security. Both goals are important, and both should be pursued.

Source: Tennessean.com