[Infowarrior] - Surveillance Cameras Win Broad US Support

[Richard Forno]

Surveillance Cameras Win Broad Support
Majority of Americans Favor Extra Safety Factor of Cameras
ANALYSIS by MICHELLE LIRTZMAN

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3422372

July 29, 2007 ‹

Crime-fighting beats privacy in public places: Americans, by nearly a 3-to-1
margin, support the increased use of surveillance cameras  a measure
decried by some civil libertarians, but credited in London with helping to
catch a variety of perpetrators since the early 1990s.

Given the chief arguments, pro and con  a way to help solve crimes vs. too
much of a government intrusion on privacy  it isn't close: 71 percent of
Americans favor the increased use of surveillance cameras, while 25 percent
oppose it.

London's surveillance network, known as the "Ring of Steel," is said to have
aided in the capture of suspects, including those accused of a pair of
attempted car bombings in June.

A similar system is coming to New York City, which plans 100 new
surveillance cameras in downtown Manhattan by year's end and 3,000  public
and private  by 2010. Chicago and Baltimore plan expanded surveillance
systems as well.

Critics, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, have opposed such
systems, arguing that they invade privacy, and could be used to track
innocent people.

Nonetheless, majority support for surveillance cameras crosses political,
ideological and population groups, albeit with differences in degree.

Seniors are most apt to support the increased use of these cameras, with
under-30s, least so; Republicans more than Democrats; women more than men;
higher educated people more than the less educated; and whites more than
African-Americans.

Through a political lens, support for increased use of surveillance systems
is lowest, 62 percent, among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents
who support Barack Obama for president  and highest of all, 86 percent,
among Republicans who support Rudy Giuliani, who made his name as New York
City's crime-fighting mayor.

METHODOLOGY  This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by telephone
July 18-21, 2007, among a random national sample of 1,125 adults.

Additional interviews were conducted with an oversample of randomly selected
African-Americans for a total of 210 black respondents.

The results have a three-point error margin. Sampling, data collection and
tabulation by TNS of Horsham, Pa.