More public surveillance means less liberty

The use of public surveillance cameras to fight crime has been a heated topic for quite some time. The issue was reignited last August when the city of Denver used federal funds to purchase an additional fifty High Activity Location Observation (HALO) cameras from the original thirteen cameras at $25,000 a pop to fight crime. Increasing the number of surveillance cameras may create a marginally safer environment, but at a significant cost to civil liberty. The activities recorded by the cameras are used exclusively by public safety and law enforcement officials. Hard working Coloradans contributed their time and money in the form of tax dollars to make the camera installations possible. Therefore, it would only be fair for contributors to have the option of seeing what they paid for. But, that’s the not the view held by many government officials. The Revolutionary War was fought because Americans wanted to break away from a government that trampled civil liberties, not create one. Adding more HALO cameras will undoubtedly transform our nation into a much more regulated one. If we want to preserve what limited civil liberties we have left, the government should seriously consider thinking twice about installing additional cameras. Ensuring that HALO recordings are more readily available to the general public would also be a considerable step toward ensuring that public surveillance is being used only for legitimate public safety reasons, and the preservation of individual freedoms...read more