Town of Paradise Valley, AZ—If you don’t
like cameras pointed at you, you'd better learn to smile. They are here to stay watching, documenting
and exposing all of your public behavior to the world.
With the new consumer camera
drone technology the camera shy folks are in paranoia overdrive. These people seem to have forgotten that cameras are
watching them 24/7 everywhere.
From the time you leave your
front door until you return cameras are constantly watching you. Some you can see and there are many others
you can’t.
For example if you enter the
Town of Paradise Valley, Arizona in a vehicle a camera concealed in a cactus
grabs the license plate number. It’s placed in a searchable database that
allows the town government to know each vehicle’s exact movements.
There are live cameras
capturing and saving video everywhere.
Some store video for a short time others keep video indefinitely only limited by the
size of their hard drives.
From the time you enter
retail stores and their parking lots until leave there is a full video record all of your visit.
Your neighbor’s home security
cameras are easily pointed at your driveway documenting your activities. Those cameras can be both overtly visible or
covert and unseen.
The reality is that if you’re
in a place outside your own home that can be seen and photographed from any
angle. Your backyard swimming pool is no sacred refuge.
Satellites, fixed wing
airplanes and occasionally helicopters, are constantly photographing the
outside of your home from the sky.
When I investigate crimes I
make every effort to look for and ask about surveillance cameras. You can nearly always find cameras that have
captured at least a portion of most serious crimes. Of course I must get to the camera’s owner
before the hard drive begins to record over the earlier video.
Today you can’t watch a local
news broadcast on TV without seeing samples of this video. Remember you only see the crappy video where
the characters are not readily identified.
There is hardly a murder case
anymore where clear video does not become evidence that prosecutors can use
either to coerce a plea deal or enter at a trial.
If you've picked your nose in
public I promise you that some camera has captured that image.
Right now there are millions
of illicit cameras in hotels, motels apartment building’s bath and shower
rooms. Today the infamous character
Norman Bates from the film “Psycho” would be watching his undressed guests in
high definition on large monitors or on his smartphone screen.
Speaking of smartphones, we all now have high definition video cameras in our pockets! At the first sign of something unusual happening the cameras are out of the pockets! There is no escape from the unblinking camera lenses!
Sorry folks the Genie is long
out of the bottle and like it or not, you’re on candid camera.
As for the little consumer drones
that may occasionally fly over your home are really inconsequential when you
look at the big picture.
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