On Monday, August 5th, the Cambridge police department will ask the Cambridge City Council for permission to deploy of more surveillance cameras. If approved, they will start with Central Square and expand throughout the city.
The Cambridge City Council meeting on August 5th is our best chance to stop this effort. We need Cantabrigians and others from the surrounding cities to come out and speak against this plan. The hearing is at 5:30pm and people can offer comments remotely. Please sign up on-line. Select the 5:30pm City Council Special Meeting on August 5th. Enter CMA 2024 #149 for the Agenda item.
Cambridge police claim that the cameras will run 24×7, but will not be monitored by people. They claim that the video recordings will be retained for only 60 days. They claim the cameras will be be used to prevent crime and identify suspects after a crime was committed. Cambridge police state they plan to roll these cameras out in busy squares where large numbers of people congregate. What is clear from their own words is there is no way these cameras will prevent crimes and would be placed in busy areas where plenty of people already are to help identify someone committing a crime.
Cambridge had no murders last year. Its rate of violent crime is lower than that of other similarly sized cities – even though those cities generally have public surveillance cameras. Cambridge represents an alternate path to what many other cities have trodden. Cambridge was one of the first cities to ban surveillance cameras, and one of the first to pass a surveillance ordinance, without which City Councilors wouldn’t even have a say in this matter. And we have successfully shown that you don’t need minute and obsessive and constant surveillance, to have a successful, innovative, 21st-century city that people love and constantly want to move to and live in. We wouldn’t have the housing problems we do, if Cambridge weren’t an intensely desirable place to live. This is a place where people are free to tinker, to experiment, and to form new ideas of community, without the government treating us like children. There are always trade offs, and the trade off of not having cameras is a good one for Cambridge.
When you give police cameras, you give police more power over the community. Power that could be used to track down organizers of peaceful protests. Power that could be used by AGs of states that ban abortions to track down women visiting the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center in Cambridge.
The moment the police get surveillance cameras, they will fight tooth and nail to keep them. The next effort will be to link the cameras together and monitor them 24×7. Then they will say it will be more economical to have computers use facial recognition technology to monitor them and identify everyone caught in the cameras’ gaze. They’ll tell you that every rise in crime means they need more cameras, and say that every fall in crime means the cameras are working. This is how the surveillance ratchet works. So far, the City Council has consistently refused to allow surveillance cameras, but we need to remind them why expanding the number of surveillance cameras is a poor choice for Cambridge.
We hope you will attend. The voices of Cantabrigians will carry the most weight to the City Council, but we need every voice we have in opposition to this plan. The hearing is this Monday, August 5th, at 5:30pm and you can offer comments remotely. When you sign up on-line, select the 5:30pm City Council Special Meeting on August 5th. Enter CMA 2024 #149 for the Agenda item.
Your voice is vital! Please make time to attend.
Peace and privacy!
Captain James
On Monday, August 5th, the Cambridge police department will ask the Cambridge City Council for permission to deploy of more surveillance cameras. If approved, they will start with Central Square and expand throughout the city.
The Cambridge City Council meeting on August 5th is our best chance to stop this effort. We need Cantabrigians and others from the surrounding cities to come out and speak against this plan. The hearing is at 5:30pm and people can offer comments remotely. Please sign up on-line. Select the 5:30pm City Council Special Meeting on August 5th. Enter CMA 2024 #149 for the Agenda item.
Cambridge police claim that the cameras will run 24×7, but will not be monitored by people. They claim that the video recordings will be retained for only 60 days. They claim the cameras will be be used to prevent crime and identify suspects after a crime was committed. Cambridge police state they plan to roll these cameras out in busy squares where large numbers of people congregate. What is clear from their own words is there is no way these cameras will prevent crimes and would be placed in busy areas where plenty of people already are to help identify someone committing a crime.
Cambridge had no murders last year. Its rate of violent crime is lower than that of other similarly sized cities – even though those cities generally have public surveillance cameras. Cambridge represents an alternate path to what many other cities have trodden. Cambridge was one of the first cities to ban surveillance cameras, and one of the first to pass a surveillance ordinance, without which City Councilors wouldn’t even have a say in this matter. And we have successfully shown that you don’t need minute and obsessive and constant surveillance, to have a successful, innovative, 21st-century city that people love and constantly want to move to and live in. We wouldn’t have the housing problems we do, if Cambridge weren’t an intensely desirable place to live. This is a place where people are free to tinker, to experiment, and to form new ideas of community, without the government treating us like children. There are always trade offs, and the trade off of not having cameras is a good one for Cambridge.
When you give police cameras, you give police more power over the community. Power that could be used to track down organizers of peaceful protests. Power that could be used by AGs of states that ban abortions to track down women visiting the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center in Cambridge.
The moment the police get surveillance cameras, they will fight tooth and nail to keep them. The next effort will be to link the cameras together and monitor them 24×7. Then they will say it will be more economical to have computers use facial recognition technology to monitor them and identify everyone caught in the cameras’ gaze. They’ll tell you that every rise in crime means they need more cameras, and say that every fall in crime means the cameras are working. This is how the surveillance ratchet works. So far, the City Council has consistently refused to allow surveillance cameras, but we need to remind them why expanding the number of surveillance cameras is a poor choice for Cambridge.
We hope you will attend. The voices of Cantabrigians will carry the most weight to the City Council, but we need every voice we have in opposition to this plan. The hearing is this Monday, August 5th, at 5:30pm and you can offer comments remotely. When you sign up on-line, select the 5:30pm City Council Special Meeting on August 5th. Enter CMA 2024 #149 for the Agenda item.
Your voice is vital! Please make time to attend.
Peace and privacy!
Captain James