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NY activists call for surveillance
camera laws
Reuters
Thursday April 26, 2007
New York rights activists called on the city council on Wednesday
to regulate surveillance cameras to prevent intrusion into people’s
privacy and prevent an abuse of footage.
Norman Siegel, a lawyer and former director of the New York Civil
Liberties Union, told a debate arranged by a group of lawyers that
laws were needed to limit how long video footage could be held and
to restrict distribution and access.
Siegel, who estimated there were at least 10,000 cameras around
New York City, said surveillance cameras should also be registered
with a government agency and people on the street should be informed
that they being filmed.
“There are 4 million video surveillance cameras in Britain,
500,000 in London alone — do we want that in New York City?”
Siegel told the debate, “Caught on camera: security concerns
vs privacy rights.”
He suggested that it be made a criminal offence to abuse surveillance
camera footage.
Surveillance has come under the spotlight in New York with the
police department due to appeal a court ruling on Thursday that
banned unrestricted photo surveillance of protesters except in cases
where criminal investigation is warranted.
The Center for Constitutional Rights also plans to file a civil
rights case against New York City on Thursday on behalf of three
black activists who were arrested and claim they were manhandled
while monitoring police activity in 2005.
Heather MacDonald, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute,
said surveillance cameras had deterred criminal and terrorist activities
and helped solve crimes.
“Americans love to amuse themselves with Big Brother fantasies,”
MacDonald said. This is not, as far as I an concerned, a very complicated
problem there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in public
spaces.
New York City Councilor Alan Gerson, who co-sponsored the debate,
said he would push to hold a council debate to address the concerns.
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