Cambridge rejects surveillance cameras

Thank you Cambridge City Council. It is nice to see that not everyone thinks 24 hour surveillance is the way to curb crime.

please ! only in cambridge!!
I invite the cambridge city council to spend a day and night in and out side of the wendy's resturant in Central square , or in central square in general and tell me you don't want cameras. PLEASE

God Bless Cambridge; finally a sensible - civilized town amongst all the 'scared' ones that have traded liberty for security.

Put the cameras up. Unless you have something to hide!

Doesn't MIT have a nuclear reactor in Cambridge...I'm thinkin' that'd be a good place for a camera. But on second thought - let the PRoC blow itself up. We'd finally be done with those freaks.

The ACLU has once again shown how inept they are as a group. People having privacy issues are the same group that demands police do more to control crime in their community but have the "don't ask us to get involved" attitude. These cameras generally are in high traffic high crime areas not looking into your bed room window find another cause to get behind.

paul:

The solution is to put a cop outside Wendy's, not a camera.

Paul, I agree!! I Live in Central Square, have for 15 years. The place is a pit at night, you only need to stand there for 10 minutes and you'll be clutching on to your purse and wishing you had protection. The punks (yeah I said punks) that roam this neighbor should be locked up, where are their parents!? Bad neighborhood, bad parents, we need the cameras. Maybe the city is afraid to put them in because they know they'll be vandalized within 24 hours!

I agree with Paul. Drug dealers and street walkers roam free in Central Sq. and Wendy is their command and control.

Police walking a beat has always been a much more effective deturrent to crime. How many people a day do they catch on camera and never prosecute. There are cameras on every corner in London and the violent crime rate goes up every year.

Thank you cambridge.

Perhaps those who quip, "...unless you got something to hide" or "it ain't lookin' in yer bedroom winda" haven't experienced the downside of being unjustly treated in this oft-intrusive, officious world.

And why is it that, in a country that boasts of total literacy, so many people miss the point(s) and can't even make relevant comments?

And what's with hating Cambridge?

Central sq was always a drug problem. From the Kenmore Pub (where the police use to hang out and work) to the other one on Prospect (now as Irish Pub) Putting up cameras would catch people doing "bad things" but, that may be the issue....it would also catch "good" people doing bad things and the people in charge may not be able to handle the fallout.

This was the easy thing to do. People can now go home and claim they saved privacy rights etc. Let there be major crime activity near their home and they will be the first ones to to say screw privacy rights I want my protection

London is arguably the city with the most cameras per capita in the world. In the course of a day, it's estimated you'll be caught on hundreds of cameras.
Yet violent crime in London is at an all time high, and shows no sign of slowing down. Indeed, despite draconian gun laws (it's nearly universally illegal to possess a gun of any kind), the cameras have utterly failed to halt a rise in gun crimes. And this isn't a new problem: crime has been getting worse and worse for years. London of all places! Can you imagine?
No amount of cameras will replace boots on the street. If you want a reduction in crime, spend the money on cops, not cameras. Bravo, Cambridge!!

I love Cambridge! I hope other cities in the US follow suit.

End the fear-mongering that claims that a police state is the solution to complicated urban problems!

Considering the domestic proliferation of surveillance tools bundled with the fact that all this information including credit card purchase information, bank account stats, books you borrowed from the library, PEN register information and internet usage is collected to create a profile of every citizen (Total Information Awareness Program) which is fed into CAPS-II and used for profiling purposes begs the question if freedom is nowadays just an illusion supported by propaganda. Once cameras are installed and 29 different law enforcement agencies have access to this data (for whatever benign reason) and you will be tracked where you go and when. Of course there are individuals who will state that this is only for the security and safety for our citizens, the question needs to be asked how much freedom Americans are willing to relinquish for safety and security. Before you answer this question for yourself, maybe you should understand that there in no total security and looking back at history, Germany in the 30th had a similar approach to control their citizens, luckily they didn't have the technology we have today. Once the freedom is relinquished, it is gone forever and it will take an act of congress or a revolution to get it back. Knowing how effective and responsible our congress is, what do you think is more likely to happen?

The big brother concern is rather ridiculous for many reasons not only that we're monitored in many buildings and retail stores, casinos, etc. . . .I doubt the cameras are going to jump off their mountings and follow you around. What's your concern if you are going about your business legally?

The issue of concern should be policies and procedures governing the use of the cameras. For example, how will the information be collected, stored, and disposed? What are the retention requirements? Who as access? etc.

To those responsible for tending this site: Is it possible that you might post my longer commentary?