Spy camera won't make us safer

The following news article can be found at CNN.com. The article “Spy cameras won’t make us safer”, is written by Bruce Schneier. Bruce Schneier is a security technologist and the author of “Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World”. The author makes and argument that for the most part, cameras do not make us safer. On January 19, it was reported that a team of 15 people assassinated Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. The Dubai police released video footage of 11 of them that were caught on tape. These members walked into airports, checked in and out of hotels, get in and out of taxis. They made not attempt to hide their identities from the cameras and even looked as though they were staring directly at them. This is only one example that is made that cameras did not stop this assassination from occurring, and as of yet don’t know if it will help identify the killers. The author goes as far as to inform us that pervasive security cameras do not substantially reduce crime which has been proven in San Francisco, California, public housing; in a New York apartment complex; in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; in Washington; in study after study in both the U.S. and the U.K. And they are not instrumental in solving many crimes after the fact. We the citizens see that every day in the news media when a person has been abducted or robbed which has been recorded on video but the surveillance tapes are so bad that you can’t even identify the person and the media and/or police are asking for our help in identifying the person or persons. See http://www.aclu.org/images/asset_upload_file708_35775.pdf I agree with this author that cameras do not deter crimes nor for the most part do they solve most crimes. I believe that our tax money is better spent on hiring and training more police officers on the streets in protecting citizens from crime and prevent crime from occuring.