Houston eyes cameras at apartment complexes

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER ^ | 2/15/06 | PAM EASTON

[ActionNewsBill]

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.

Houston is facing a severe police shortage because of too many retirements and too few recruits, and the city has absorbed 150,000 hurricane evacuees who are filling apartment complexes in crime-ridden neighborhoods. The City Council is considering a public safety tax to pay for more officers.

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.

Scott Henson, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Police Accountability Project in Texas, called Hurtt's building-permit proposal "radical and extreme" and said it may violate the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable searches.

Andy Teas with the Houston Apartment Association said that although some would consider cameras an invasion of privacy, "I think a lot of people would appreciate the thought of extra eyes looking out for them."

Such cameras are costly, Houston Mayor Bill White said, "but on the other hand we spend an awful lot for patrol presence." He called the chief's proposal a "brainstorm" rather than a decision.

The program would require City Council approval.

[conservative physics]

frankly what is the difference between having an officer stand there 24 hours a day ... and having a camera monitor the area 24 hours a day? beside the difference in cost.

[politicket]

As George Orwell described it in 1984,

"The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard."

"There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."

[Bear_Slayer]

Armed neighborhood citizen patrols can actually do something about crime, cameras just let you watch.

Armed citizen patrols can do something about cameras.

[Bear_Slayer]

Nothing. Do officers stand around all day monitoring the same people?

Only in N. Korea, & Cuba

Or american prisons.

I live in none of these places and I refuse to be treated as if I do!

[L98Fiero]

"I have bookmarked this thread for reposting when I get this same argument thrown at me for fighting against the Patriot Act."

Sorry, but if the Patriot Act called for installing cameras in those places, I would be against it as well. Monitoring an international phone call is not even in the same ball-park as this.

Not a flame, just me disagreeing with you.

[BlueNgold]

Yet, these yahoos are the ones Cheney was supposed to personally call and volunteer for strip searches, polygraphs, and serum tests...

[conservative physics]

You think it's unreasonable for police to spend extra time patrolling an apartment complex that they get called to 20 times a day?

What are the police suppose to do? avoid the areas where crime occurs? go catch real criminals not wearing their seat belts? or double parking?

Not everyone who is poor is a criminal... maybe the honest people would like to have the police around more often to scare off the trouble makers... as I stated earlier I see no difference between having a cop patrol a crime ridden area and having a camera there that accomplishes the same thing.

[Bear_Slayer]

You think it's unreasonable for police to spend extra time patrolling. . .

Extra time or all the time. Cameras patrol all the time. Persons respond to calls or make rounds.

Persons that watch you constantly are called gaurds.

Korean and cuban have gaurds. Prisoners have gaurds.

Not me.

[Polonius]

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.

Requiring homeowners to install camera surveillance ... outside or inside? And once police decide a homeowner requires such cameras, who pays? I'd bet the homeowner. This seems like an attempt to keep police costs down by forcing private citizens to pay -- for something that will help the police after the fact rather than making the owner any safer.

[Republicus2001]

understand Larry Flynt is the mastermind behind this - this is a hoax

[Republicus2001]

is taking a dump in private wrong?

[Republicus2001]

why not a cam up every dress?

[Republicus2001]

and you KNOW what am talkin' bout

[conservative physics]

Many wealthy people pay a lot to have 24 hour security guards help protect the neighborhoods and buildings they live in, I guess the poor don't deserve that level of security.

[Bear_Slayer]

Many wealthy people pay a lot to have 24 hour security guards help protect the neighborhoods

Their money. Their choice. It's private property.

Prisoners have gaurds.

I'm not a prisoner.

[bigdcaldavis]

I hope Hillary doesn't have me investigated for what I'm about to post about her...

:)

[philetus]

"...if you are not doing anything wrong, why should you worry about it?"

How about that! Chief Harold Hurtt quoting some Freepers.

[Dead Corpse]

How about you stand up, buy a gun, learn to use it, and take some responsibility for your OWN safety for a change? Instead of trusting someone else, or a friggin' camera, to do it for you...

[sheltonmac]

"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?"

It really is quite amusing. This very argument has been used by "conservatives" to justify the Patriot Act and illegal government wiretaps: "It's worth it if it prevents another 9/11."

[billbears]

Reading through this thread I find the indignation about the chief's remarks to be quite sad. He must not be a Republican. We all know, or at least we have been told, that only Republicans know how to handle this level of 'protection' properly....