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CNN Live At Daybreak

Surveillance Cameras Everywhere in New York City

Aired April 18, 2002 - 05:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: They just seem to be watching you everywhere. Watching -- hey, there's a camera right there and we're on the air. Was I a good actress or what?

But we do want to talk about surveillance cameras, because they are everywhere in New York City. Let's check in now with Garrick Utley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Times Square, in our all seen video age, it's harder to get lost in the crowd. It's not just the billboard faces keeping their eye on you. There are the cameras everywhere.

Does the idea bother you? It bothers Bill Brown.

BILL BROWN, GUIDE: From this spot, even though there are no signs that would announce this, we're watched by at least three different sort of surveillance groups. The first, and perhaps most important, is directly above us. This object at the top of the pole is not what it might look to be, which is either a street lamp of some sort.

Inside of that very small housing is a miniature camera. It can go around 360 degrees, go underneath its carriage, which means it has virtually no blind spots.

UTLEY: Bill Brown conducts weekly guided tours for the public, warning of the camera's intrusion into people's lives.

(on camera): Way up there, there's another camera. And that's a different kind of camera.

BROWN: That's a Web camera, a remotely accessed Web cam.

UTLEY: Why does that camera exist?

BROWN: Pure voyeurism and spectatorship. We don't know that we're being watched, so people are consuming the violation of our privacy.

UTLEY: Is that illegal? BROWN: I think it should be, but under the laws of the United States -- this is kind of a large gap having to do with the word "video." If that was a microphone operating in public, it would be closed down as soon as we reported it.

UTLEY: What's amazing about the proliferation of surveillance cameras is how little public reaction there is to it. We have all kinds of laws and limitations on wire tapping, on eavesdropping. We don't want other people listening in to our private conversations and learning our innermost thoughts. So why aren't cameras treated the same way?

(voice-over): Yes, we know that the ATM is taking our picture, but we don't know how many hidden cameras could be used and misused. Where is the line between security and privacy on the street where you live? On West 16th Street in Manhattan?

BROWN: I can see one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. On my left side, I can see another ten cameras or so. One, two, three, four, five, six more. And I know from my map that there's a seventh one beyond that, making 17 cameras along the single side of a single street.

UTLEY: The vast majority of surveillance cameras are in private hands, not the government's. And there is no constitutional right to privacy in public.

(on camera): The big argument for these cameras is security, fight crime, give the police another weapon.

BROWN: Right, that is the argument. The thing that's going to work best to deter that type of crime isn't a secret camera or a camera hidden in plain sight, but a large sign that says, "Warning: police camera in operation 24 hours a day."

So, indeed, rather than having the cameras, you should only have the signs.

UTLEY (voice-over): Perhaps that will be the new Utopia one day. For now, the cameras are spreading and the people are not complaining.

Garrick Utley, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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