The U.K. leads the world when it comes to surveillance of citizens with roughly one camera for every 14 citizens. With 400,000 cameras London has one on nearly every street corner and according to Engadget they aren’t simply the type of cameras that film you, they also are equipped with “mics, speakers” and have “the intelligence to detect violent behavior and see through clothes.” A new set of camera currently being installed will now feature the ability “to talk.” (the U.K. cameras acted as a supporting actor in a Scottish film that showed at the Wisconsin Film Festival called “Red Road“) New York City and Chicago are the least camera shy American cities with 3,000 and 2,200 respectively. In Chicago, they have cameras equipped with microphones that can “detect gunshots.”
Madison hasn’t been big on the camera mounted surveillance and currently there are only a handful of cameras downtown with extras added on special occasions such as Halloween. According to a report by The Capital Times that could soon start changing with new cameras intended to assist in stopping traffic scofflaws.
In Madison’s case the cameras are specifically “red light enforcement cameras” and they hardly come close to comparison with the U.K.’s 4 million cameras (I just want to write that again so you know it isn’t a typo, “the U.K.’s 4 million cameras”). However, when the word “surveillance” comes into play, especially when turned onto city streets, privacy questions are sure to rise. It is important to understand how these specific cameras will work before Joe Paranoia looks up while crossing the street and starts thinking we are headed in the direction of the U.K.
The Cap Times writes:
The Madison Police Department is interested in using cameras to catch drivers going through red lights in an attempt to reduce the number of accidents in intersections. The red light-running cameras would be integrated with the traffic signal system to detect when a car enters an intersection on a red. The camera then records the license plate number. Police trace the license number and a ticket is mailed to the violator.
The paper quotes District 16 Alder Judy Compton as one of the biggest supporters of the surveillance systems, “We don’t have enough officers to be in every place in the city that we need to be. This is a help for that.”
So What About Privacy?
Compton is fairly straight forward and essentially says she doesn’t have time “for those who complain and say it’s a privacy issue.”
The ironically named Captain Cam McLay is with the Madison Police Department Traffic and Support Services Section. The article says:
McLay also dismisses the privacy angle, pointing out that the cameras aren’t running all the time and don’t take photos of people. Instead they take a photograph of the car as it triggers the sensor while entering an intersection against a red light.
How Much Will It Cost?
The article fails to tell us how many cameras the MPD is hoping to install and how much it will cost taxpayers. The article does quote a UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs analysis that found the “societal cost of red light-running is about $14 billion per year in the United States.” the article also cites a report from The National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running. That report found that in “Charlotte, N.C., the red light camera program cut violations by more than 70 percent in the first year, and crashes dropped by more than 10 percent citywide.”
In the grand scheme it would seem the benefits outweigh any cost that the city would incur and any sort of surveillance will be at the bare bones minimum. Red light cams seem like a no brainer.
