Philadelphia police will see how Chicago uses video surveillance

KAIT 8 | March 8, 2005

PHILADELPHIA Philadelphia's police commissioner is going to send a team to Chicago to gather information about that police department's use of video surveillance cameras.

The city's district attorney has called for such cameras in high-crime areas of Philadelphia, but others argue that the devices just move crime elsewhere.

Critics say the cameras will also widen the divisions between police and the public and violate privacy.

An official with the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania says the cameras capture "not just what bad people do" but what all of us do.

He says we "have a right, until we've done something wrong, to walk around and do what we want."

The police commissioner disagrees, saying "if Big Brother can stop crime and violence, that's exactly what we need."

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