This just from experience, and it didn't make the headlines 15 years ago like it has today probably because there was a democrat in the office...
The City of Tacoma installed cameras on several street corners, shopping areas in and around an area called "Hilltop" in Tacoma, that use to be a crime-ridden, crack-dealing area. Low and behold, the ACLU didn't come to the rescue and the the area was cleaned up. Hilltop is now safe to walk after dark. Sure, they added more patrols as well over time since the city is constantly growing, but the cameras did their job.
I'm all for camera surveillence if the community wishes for it. Put it to a vote. What say you, Chairboy?
Similarly, residents of Tacoma, Washington's inner-city Hilltop neighborhood formed the Hilltop Action Coalition to combat the drug dealers, gang members, and prostitutes congregating in their streets. The coalition's director, Darlena Gray, says that residents would ask at block meetings why they couldn't use cameras to discourage crime in their neighborhood the way many business owners use cameras to prevent shoplifting. Because the community overwhelmingly backed such a measure, Gray sought and received a federal grant from the Department of Justice for the six cameras currently in operation.
Three minutes away from the camera locations, at a Tacoma police substation, officers can control the cameras with toggle switches and watch the displayed images on a pair of color monitors. An officer will see crimes in progress on the station house monitors and relay the description of the suspects to officers already in the area, who quickly apprehend them. This system works extremely well, considering that the cameras aren't hidden. According to Tacoma police, drug dealers know they are being watched--occasionally they wave at the camera.
Gray says Hilltop residents are supplementing cameras with other measures to take back control of their neighborhood-- from new fences to strategic lighting--and don't find the cameras intrusive. She says their neighborhood was so ravaged with drug- and gang- related violence before the cameras came that residents couldn't even drive down certain streets, and they welcome the change.
http://reason.com/9705/col.bjtaylor.shtml
From your article, its says "even in houses". The BS flag went up, Chairboy, thats colorful journalism that appears to have sucked even the most highly educated like yourself in...
Building permits should require malls and large apartment complexes to install surveillance cameras, Hurtt said. And if a homeowner requires repeated police response, it is reasonable to require camera surveillance of the property, he said.
Hmm, sounds just like Hilltop. The cameras cover wide areas of residentual properties where crime was high.
Guess what, the residents voted on it, it passed and its successful.
