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Dallas Cops Share Surveillance Tapes With Businesses

By Jeralyn, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Thu Dec 30, 2004 at 10:32:20 AM EST
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Grits for Breakfast has the goods on the Dallas Police who are sharing surveillance tapes from cameras installed on public thoroughfares with businesses. More proof, it says, that the proliferation of police cameras isn't really about traffic enforcement.

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    • Dallas Cops Share Surveillance Tapes With Businesses | 1 comment (1 topical)
    Re: Dallas Cops Share Surveillance Tapes With Busi (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 05, 2005 at 12:04:16 PM EST
    What bothers me most about 24/7/365 video surveillance, even in public, isn't the opportunity for voyeurism so much as the fact that it creates an infrastructure which could easily be used to violate our civil rights, probably sooner than we think. Most of us commit minor violations, like littering or driving without a seatbelt, at least on occasion, both because the offenses are so minor and because the odds of being caught are so slim. But not anymore, at least not in Deep Ellum! Now we can, at least in theory, catch everyone who carelessly tosses a cigarette butt onto the street, every seat belt scofflaw, etc. Of course, they're not going to do that. But if the police "have it in" for someone who lives, or at least frequents, the Deep Ellum neighborhood, they can now go fishing through the archives for some such minor offense, and use the footage as a basis for harassment or even arrest (remember the recent case where the Supremes said the police can arrest you for any violation of the law, even a violation like driving without a seatbelt, which carries no penalty of jail time). In other words, this gives the police a very powerful means to make life very difficult for anyone they want to: non-whites, people wearing anti-Bush T-shirts, whatever.

    Dallas Cops Share Surveillance Tapes With Businesses | 1 comment (1 topical)