ABC: 71% of Americans prefer security cameras over privacy

[KBCraig]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3422372&page=1

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

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.

[Pat K]

Sigh 

[J’raxis 270145]

In other news, 50% of Americans are of below-average intelligence... wonder what the overlap here is...

[Rosie the Riveter]

Uuughhh

How do cameras stop crime again? 

I've never seen a camera jump down off its perch and actually stop a crime....

[AlexLibman]

Here's one problem you can solve with 213 million bullets!

[kadar]

I don't believe in poll numbers.

I heard a good one a few weeks ago.
Two thirds of the American public agree on an additional seventy-five cents a pack cigarette tax, according to 1000 polled.

[Puke]

Yeah, a touch over 1000 people does not mean shit when compared to the population of 301 million.

Unfortunately though, I have a feeling that if it was possible to survey every person that the majority would still think that camera are good.
I like that it's never pointed out how useless cameras are against people willing to kill themselves. Only after the fact can the gov't go over the tapes and connect the dots. That doesn't mean shit if you were just incinerated by a car bomb.

[Spencer]

In other news, 71% of Americans advocate the disinterment of Ben "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" Franklin.