[IP] "if you are not doing anything wrong, why should you worry about it?"]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: "if you are not doing anything wrong, why should you worry
about it?"
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 20:38:11 -0800
From: DV Henkel-Wallace <gumby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Dave,
I saw this, indirectly, on Techdirt.
I do feel sorry for the police chief, and for the people of Houston.
But still, it's a pretty scary idea for anyone to raise.
-d
Houston eyes cameras at apartment complexes
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Police_Cameras.html
By PAM EASTON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
HOUSTON -- Houston's police chief on Wednesday proposed placing
surveillance cameras in apartment complexes, downtown streets,
shopping malls and even private homes to fight crime during a
shortage of police officers.
"I know a lot of people are concerned about Big Brother, but my
response to that is, if you are not doing anything wrong, why should
you worry about it?" Chief Harold Hurtt told reporters Wednesday at a
regular briefing.
Houston is facing a severe police shortage because of too many
retirements and too few recruits, and the city has absorbed 150,000
hurricane evacuees who are filling apartment complexes in crime-
ridden neighborhoods. The City Council is considering a public safety
tax to pay for more officers.
Building permits should require malls and large apartment complexes
to install surveillance cameras, Hurtt said. And if a homeowner
requires repeated police response, it is reasonable to require camera
surveillance of the property, he said.
Scott Henson, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Police
Accountability Project in Texas, called Hurtt's building-permit
proposal "radical and extreme" and said it may violate the Fourth
Amendment's protections against unreasonable searches.
Andy Teas with the Houston Apartment Association said that although
some would consider cameras an invasion of privacy, "I think a lot of
people would appreciate the thought of extra eyes looking out for them."
Such cameras are costly, Houston Mayor Bill White said, "but on the
other hand we spend an awful lot for patrol presence." He called the
chief's proposal a "brainstorm" rather than a decision.
The program would require City Council approval.
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