Carnal Reason

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.

seattlepi.com, with a hat tip to Schneier on Security

Mr. Schneier asks:

One of the problems we have in the privacy community is that we don’t have a crisp answer to that question. Any suggestions?

Chief Hurtt should be invited to lead the way. The first round of cameras would be placed in his home, those of his officers, and those of the Houston mayor and city council. The camera feeds would be accessible on the internet. I’m sure none of them have anything to hide, and hence would have no objections.

Posted on February 24th, 2006 by pwyll
Filed under: General