USA says Britain can keep its CCTV cameras

America should emulate Britain by expanding the use of surveillance cameras. So proposes Senator Joe Lieberman, who cites the effective response of the UK police in the wake of the recent failed terrorist attacks, and who believes that they can do it without compromising anybody’s real privacy. The senator’s intentions are noble, but America should beware of following his advice.

The costs of a national network of CCTV cameras would far outweigh its benefits. Although cameras can help investigators after an attack, they don’t prevent attacks from happening in the first place. Nor, according to research, do cameras do anything to reduce regular crime. Indeed, they have even caused corruption in a number of US cities.

In Lubbock, Texas, for instance, the authorities were found to have shortened the yellow lights at monitored intersections, thus padding their coffers with fines from red light violations and causing more accidents. And it’s absurd” to believe that the UK model does not violate privacy: the country has one CCTV camera for every 14 people, and residents are filmed by as many as 300 cameras a day.

This is one British innovation America should do without.

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