With news of the National Security Association going through your emails and listening to your phone calls, I want to know if you feel like you are being watched enough.
When a respected magazine like “Popular Science” writes an article entitled “The NSA Sucks More Than You Thought”1, you should really begin to question why and how these people got the authority to sift through your personal communications.
God only knows what drones are watching us across the country.
So, we’re being watched on a national level.
Goody.
Drive through almost any larger town in the “civilized” world and you will have been photographed hundreds, if not thousands, of times.
Those cameras are supposedly there to enforce laws and improve safety.
So we’re being watched on a state and municipal level‑ too.
I am beginning to feel like a secret celebrity.
The only problem with all these cameras is that people like them about as much as a prostrate exam or a root canal.
A Colorado town is considering ordinances that would allow for drone hunting.2 They are even considering a bounty on drones!
Where do I sign up? Sounds like fun.
An Iowa town is working on their own ban on crime-fighting robots.3 The ordinance started because of a grass-roots petition against red light cameras and spread to any license plate-reading device or domestic drone system.
Don’t like robots? I am still for the shooting thing.
An Associated Press article notes that Los Angeles has turned off their traffic cameras amid claims of privacy invasion. What really caused their demise though was that the cameras were costing the city too much money.4
Houston residents voted to get rid of their cameras even though doing so cost the city around $25 million. The mayor and council defended the camera system but ultimately decided to honor “the will of the people”.
One quote I liked from that article: Houston Mayor Annise Parker, after the vote said, “For those who may be celebrating the fact the red light cameras are turned off, it is illegal to run a red light. I will do everything I can to have police out enforcing this law.”
Really. Have police PEOPLE do their job. What a strange idea. HPD could have probably used that $25 million, huh?
More than a dozen cities and nine states now ban these traffic cameras.
I think it has something to do with the fact that we like to know who is looking at us.
I don’t mind seeing an official doing their job because I can see the person.
When I see a camera I always imagine some slug sitting in front of a monitor in a darkened room watching girls.
Since there are not crimes constantly going on, the mind tends to find something interesting to watch.
Still creepy though.
I would have thought I was safe from these disturbing cameras in a little town like Saratoga.
Apparently not.
Once upon a time we had a camera at the Hot Pool that I believe was paid for by a Homeland Security Grant.
The camera proved ineffective in steamy winter conditions and did not prevent repeated loss of life rings, people-grabbing hooks, or items from the first-aid kit that was bolted on the wall of the dressing rooms.
I have been told that the reason the camera was removed is that somehow even more cameras ended up monitoring the dressing rooms interiors. All I really know is that I was glad when they were (not so finally it seems) taken away.
Since then the town has spent a pretty hefty chunk of change on building shiny new dressing rooms and an additional not-so-hot pool.
Post new dressing rooms we have had a few petty vandalism incidents occur.
Nobody likes this and, of course we want to prevent further abuses.
In a knee-jerk response, the Saratoga Town Council has approved spending about $4,000 for four cameras and a digital video recorder system to go up at the Hot Pool.
I know people that already won’t go to the Hot Pool because they don’t like being seen in a bathing suit.
I am pretty sure they don’t want to be on camera in one.
I don’t think they are the only ones who feels that way.
The question is, do we really want to make folks feel uncomfortable at our biggest tourist attraction?
I do have a better solution. Far be it from me to just bitch without offering some solution.
I think the town should mandate that whichever police officer is on duty make a stop at the hot pool twice an hour if not occupied with other duties.
This has several benefits.
1. We don’t have to raid our already deficit budget any further.
2. It would add to the secure feeling at the Hot Pool with a PERSON who could resolve possible problems in real time.
3. It boosts the “friendliness factor” at the Hot Pool. I know that several times (not anytime recently) I have had nice conversations with officers patrolling the Hot Pool. It is a good thing when people leave town thinking that our police force is comprised of friendly people and that the Hot Pool is a safe and secure place.
4. This precludes any obtuse and myopic reactions like “let’s just close the dressing rooms after a certain hour”.
5. It gets the police force up, out and meeting the public in a laid back capacity. This would, in the long run, be better for them physically and help their job to be more mentally satisfying.
To sum up my feelings on the Hot Pool camera situation: I am not doing anything wrong, I don’t want to be treated like I am and I DON’T want to be on anyone’s camera. At least not in Saratoga, Wyoming.
1. http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-07/update-nsa-sucks-more-than-you-last-thought
2. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/drone-hunting-colorado-172357477.html
3. http://popsci.com/technology/article/2013-06/iowa-city-considers-ban-crime-fighting-robots
4. http://news.yahoo.com/houston-latest-us-city-end-red-light-cameras-213804104.html
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