Do we really want surveillance cameras in black neighborhoods?

Black community leaders are asking for surveillance cameras to be installed in predominantly black neighborhoods where there is higher than normal crime rates.

“We don’t want to feel police are profiling young men and women,” Katoya Palmer told KING 5. “We don’t want to feel like they’re using force that’s unreasonable. Don’t want to feel like we can’t come to these corners and congregate.”

Well, what do you think putting a black community under surveillance is going to do exactly?

This idea of putting cameras around black neighborhoods is something SPD Chief Kathleen O’Toole is open to but she’s a bit cautious.

“If the community is coming to us and demanding cameras in a high-crime neighborhood, we need to be responsive, we need to work with them, but we need policies around retention … around privacy, to strike the right balance,” O’Toole said.

The chief says she will get community input and work with the ACLU to come up with a surveillance camera program, because you always have to get the blessings of the ACLU before you do anything in a progressive city.

It sounds like an awful idea.

Just from the optics of it, you’ve got a white mayor, some white city council members, a white police chief putting cameras up in black neighborhoods. That doesn’t look good.

And from a privacy standpoint, do you want to live with big brother watching? Now maybe you do &#8212 maybe you think this will be meaningful but think of the implications.

Let’s say you put up the cameras and the crime rate goes down in Central Seattle. It’s a success. If it’s a success, wouldn’t you want to add more cameras elsewhere?

The folks in Redmond and Bainbridge and Milton don’t want crime &#8212 they’re relatively low-crime areas, but any one robbery is one too many. I imagine someone saying we should be proactive and put the cameras up. Are you comfortable with that?

Maybe some of the privacy concerns are overstated. London has a ton of cameras around to catch bad guys doing bad things. I never once felt strange being captured by these cameras when I visited in March. But crime still exists, so it’s not like this idea is full proof.