Video surveillance can be an effective tool in law enforcement.
But it is not an automatic guarantee of a reduction in crime. So neither police nor average citizens should expect that crime will magically decline in proportion to the increasing number of video cameras being posted throughout Haverhill's downtown.
In fact, they could give residents a false sense of security — while the camera never sleeps and is always looking, it is still not the same as a patrol officer walking the beat, who can respond in less time than it would take for an officer at the station looking at video monitors to dispatch another officer to a trouble spot.
According to city officials, there are at least 16 cameras, maybe more, located throughout the downtown. Most city councilors support the increased video monitoring, and according to a random sampling, so do business owners and other residents.
They say it discourages crime, or when crime does occur, can help police solve everything from graffiti "tagging" to drug deals to muggings.
Obviously, the city is no pioneer in video surveillance. Most businesses — from gas stations to retail stores to restaurants — use video surveillance to catch shoplifters or vandals. Highway toll booths have them to catch scofflaws. And citizens cannot complain about privacy — there is no absolute right to privacy in public places.
Still, there are trade-offs that come with the expanded use of cameras, and one of them is the erosion of a sense of personal privacy — that one can walk or drive down a street without government looking over your shoulder. If city officials are eager to draw more people into the downtown, an actual police presence would be more of a draw than the knowledge that your every move, plus your license plate, will end up on videotape.
And, no matter how many assurances are given that this video will never end up in the hands of third parties, the risk remains. In England, where video cameras are everywhere, one watchdog group contends that up to 90 percent of them may violate privacy regulations.
Beyond that, there has not been any great reduction in crime in England.
Video cameras are seductive — eyes that never sleep, or even blink, to help police who can never be everywhere. But it will still be a long time before they will replace old-fashioned police work.
