LETTER: Right to Privacy
“Some cities are actually removing working video systems from Police cars. In many cases the camera only records when the Officers activate it. The Police sometimes apply a degree of stagecraft, being in control of when they are on camera.
“It seems that constant video tape catches too many criminal acts by the cops themselves, and some of those create a huge liability for the city when lawsuits arise.
“In one city, red light cameras caught a large number of failures to stop by Police, emergency and other vehicles. The state law there allows emergency vehicles to proceed through red lights after a momentary stop. The emergency vehicles legally accrued a considerable collection of fines from red light camera tickets…
“It seems that video is a two way street, catching big brother in abuses as long as big brother is not allowed to make the tape conveniently disappear…”
