Pressure is building for greater use of video cameras to keep watch over the nation’s cities — particularly in transportation systems and other spots vulnerable to terrorism — after the bombings in London.
The calls have come over the last few weeks as British investigators released surveillance footage of the bombers in the deadly July 7 attacks and then put out frames of suspects in Thursday’s failed attacks.
“I do not think that cameras are the big mortal threat to civil liberties that people are painting them to be,” Washington, D.C., Mayor Anthony A. Williams said Friday.
He’s not alone. While privacy advocates question their effectiveness, Sen. Hillary Clinton called for New York City subway officials to install more cameras, even though officials said some 5,000 cameras are already in use across all modes of city travel. In Stamford, Connecticut, Mayor Dan Malloy said it’s time to revisit a 1999 ordinance that limited cameras to watching traffic.
In many other spots around the country, cameras already are in place.
“In general, I think we’re getting used to cameras,” said Roy Bordes, who runs an Orlando, Florida, security design consultant firm. Hey, that’s just the way the world is.”
