CCTV cameras on city streets are gradually becoming an everyday reality all over the world. The expected result of the widespread introduction of cameras as a measure of social control is an increase in the “transparency” of the streets for law enforcement agencies. However, the concept of a “transparent society” where all actions are visible to others has both supporters and opponents. The positions of public opinion in most countries of the world fall somewhere between two extremes: severe public restrictions and the creation of a national social rating system. The former happened, for instance, in San Francisco, where a ban was introduced on the use of facial recognition technology by the police. The latter is present in the PRC, which includes such consequences of “low rating” as civil rights restriction.
The debates often emphasize the priority of safety. However, security is not a guaranteed outcome with the widespread introduction of video surveillance in cities (Crawford & Evans, 2017). On the contrary, new risks are emerging for urban spaces. As urban communities develop, it has been described how, due to the struggle for security, accessible public space can be destroyed. For instance, Davis (2006 as cited in Crawford & Evans, 2017) showed, using the example of Los Angeles, how the creation of a safe space for wealthy citizens deepened the social inequality between residents. The consequences included opposing the interests of the poor and rich citizens and the destruction of the “democratic mixing” that opposed the community’s class polarization. As a result, security has become a commodity that determines social status. Moreover, social perceptions of threats have become more dependent on public discussion about security and moral panic than on the actual crime level.
Thus, the analysis of urban public space shows the risks of establishing security “from top to bottom” and in one social group’s interests. Such studies demonstrate that the introduction of video monitoring in urban spaces can lead to even greater risks than the loss of privacy. Following this, one can say that privacy should be a priority over the security promised by video surveillance.
Reference
Crawford, A., & Evans, K. (2017). Crime prevention and community safety. In: The Oxford Handbook of Criminology. Oxford University Press, 797 – 824.