Early this month, people across the nation hung on the edge of their seats after a 9-year-old girl was snatched from a New York state park campground. Against the typical odds, she was located and rescued from her kidnapper just days after her capture. Law enforcement officials say it was unlikely, and the abductor’s own mistake made the find possible. Now a New York lawmaker says he wants security cameras in parks, and has proposed a bill to make it so.
Police shows make it seem like they work
The district of Senator Jim Tedisco (R–Saratoga Springs) includes the Moreau Lake State Park, from where the girl was taken. No doubt the whole thing struck a nerve with Tedisco. His proposed law would require all state parks, campgrounds, and recreational facilities to have security cameras at all entrances and exits. The state installed security cameras in the park following the kidnapping. There are other New York state parks already equipped with security cams—somewhere between 60 and 70 out of 180 parks in the system.
If you watch police procedurals on the television, you know that in the fictionalized accounts, public security cameras often “come to the rescue” in tracking down crooks. And across the U.S. they’re certainly not uncommon in public settings.
You might guess that New York or Washington, D.C., are probably bristling with electronic eyes—and you could be wrong. Based on the number of cameras per 1,000 residents, Atlanta, Georgia, takes the top of the list, with nearly 49 cameras per 1,000 people. At the bottom of the “Top 10” list for U.S. cities, Fresno, California, has nearly 9 cameras per 1,000. Washington, D.C., is Number 4 on the list, with a little over 16 cameras per 1,000 folks. New York doesn’t even make the list.
Does privacy outweigh security?
But perhaps the more we’re crammed in on top of one another, the less we have an expectation of privacy. Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Fresno all have busy streets. But moving out of the cities and into the (seemingly) peaceful ecology of our parks, do you feel privacy should be given more sway? What about security cameras in parks? Do you think most parks should have security cameras posted at entrances and exits? Or do you dislike the idea? We’d like to ask if you’d weigh your opinions in on this matter in our poll.
We’ll release the results of the poll in a future article. And please, if you have thoughts you’d like to share, drop us a line using the “comment card” below. Please include the words “Park Cameras” in the subject line.
As to New York’s proposed legislation? State agencies, by directive, can’t comment on legislative proposals. However, New York’s Police Benevolent Association, the union for police officers, did lend its support. “Our Park Police officers have been protecting state parks since 1885,” reads a statement from the union. “[They] are uniquely qualified to assist Gov. Hochul and legislative leaders in the development and implementation of effective park protection strategies to ensure the safety of the more than 90 million visitors to our state parks each year.” Just how Senator Tedisco’s bill will be received by other lawmakers—and the governor—remains to be seen.
Your thoughts?
##RVT1126b
1984 is slower coming to bear very bitter fruit.
Nothing slow about it, Tom. We’re almost totally there already. I’m not a fan of the argument that if you’re not doing anything wrong, what’s the harm in being watched?
Oh boy, rvtravel, you just poked a stick in the hornets nest!
I think we’re having a calm decent discussion and I’m interested in what fellow rv’ers are commenting here. Just my (unsolicited) opinion.
I agree with your opinion on this, nana
Trouble is everyone has no problem with violating someone else’s privacy. I don’t need cameras watching everything I do. It just gives our government another took to know our business.
Same comment I made to Ed K. If people think their lives are so important that our government needs to know our business, I think we think too much of ourselves. Unless we’re doing something shady that we try and justify with extremist views,
And just what are extremist views and who decides?
Preaching to the choir here, but it appears the US govt is(has been) making the decisions on who has extremist views (basically conservative, law-abiding citizens)….here we come China….boooooooo. They are infringing more and more on us – when folks are up to no good, cameras will occasionally help….occasionally….in this case, the police did their job and were successful in finding that creep…didn’t need cameras.
Yep, no historical examples of governments spying on their own people and using that knowledge against them, both individually and collectively. Of course, that can never happen here. :-/
I’m pretty sure that moms speaking out against grooming in Virginia didn’t think Merrick Garland and the FBI would label them as extremists either when they attended a school board meeting. Or, Catholics would be listed as an extremist organization by the FBI.
“It’s for your own good”. “Trust us.”
What a bunch of BS, spending too much time watching congress tell you what to think.
I didn’t understand your reply. You support Catholics being listed as an extremist group and also support parents having no say in sexually explicit books in the library at elementary schools, which also brings up that you must not support parental notification of your own child’s name being changed while at school.
Do you support all of the above or only 1 or 2 of my assertions? It can’t be none tho, you already made it clear. I’m just offering facts. You can close your eyes and plug your ears, but facts are facts.
Sounds like we are heading to the surveillance like China, Hopefully I will be long gone when we fully lose our freedom to roam with out someone sticking their government nose in my business.
Nobody is sticking their nose in my business by looking out for my safety. I don’t understand why people think they are being stalked by the government when there are bigger things for the government to deal with than us ordinary folks being caught on a campground camera! If someone kidnapped my daughter and a public camera helped find her I would be forever grateful! Not spiteful or paranoid.
Exactly what the Chinese and Russians, etc. said before their governments were using all means possible to be sure they towed the line.
I had the great pleasure to work with many people in former Soviet block nations. I always asked them about life under that rule. The stories are horrifying.
I’m not saying that cameras can’t be helpful, but like most things that can be good, they can also be used for nefarious purposes. Be careful with just how much control governments get and how much hackers can do.
“The natural progression of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.” Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, May 27, 1788
100 Mikal. Loss of freedoms comes for you slowly and without much fanfare. Under cover of virtue.
Yes, please! Any extra safety always helps. Those that are afraid of cameras are usually doing something shady. And that’s the point.
The problem with that Dave, who determines what is shady and what is not. What is judged as shady today, may not have been yesterday, and vice versa…that’s how twisted and perverse our society has become. IMO anyway.
Does this mean that I cannot pee in the woods anymore?
🤣 That reminds me of when I bought my first parcel of mountain property in 1992. I told my sons I wanted them to go around the perimeter and “mark” the trees so the black bears and cougars would stay out. They didn’t fall for it.🤔🤣 Of course, that first parcel was almost 12 acres, so would have taken a lot of water and quite a bit of time.😲 Have a good night, Kelly. 😀 –Diane aka Mountain Mama
First I’d rather all politicians have to be cam’d up at all times, second this guy needs to change that letter after his name from a R, third I would never make it a point to travel to or camp in NYS …who was it that said those who give up liberty for a little safety deserve neither? This country has gone bat crazy. Glad the little one was found safely, now let’s see what happens with the perp, and 10 to 1 he is a excon that should not have been released in the first place and the judge will not sentence him to the punishment he deserves. No to cameras …
Ben Franklin…but the quote is taken completely out of context. If interested in what Franklin was actually discussing read this:
https://www.npr.org/2015/03/02/390245038/ben-franklins-famous-liberty-safety-quote-lost-its-context-in-21st-century
Very interesting Mikal. I read it as little more than a debate and conversation among lawyers trying to justify their own opinions. Pretty sure Ben wasn’t a pro-taxation Pol.
I did enjoy reading the conversation, thanks for that link, but not exactly fact, simply opinion. Some may agree with it. I do not but that’s what differing opinions are for. Not a monolith of thought.
This from his own writings not some opinions of think tanks putting their slant on it, please research further…”As to the other two acts, the Massachusetts must suffer all the hazards and mischiefs of war rather than admit the alteration of their charters and laws by Parliament. ‘They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.’“
Amen. Every time something nasty happens, it gets put under the media microscope and presented as though it’s happening every day all over the country. Think about it! What were the other 330,000,000 people doing when this happened? Should they all go under Big Brother’s surveillance, 24 x 7 to prevent a rare, tragic incident? That’s what it’s coming to. But we keep listening to it, and giving the government more and more control over our daily lives. We need to be watching them, not having them watch us. Hillary’s Basket of Deplorables resides in Washington, D. C.
Don’t be doing something in a public place that you don’t want seen.
Who gets to view the video?
Is it only government officials to investigate a potential crime? Or will these cameras be continuously shown through a website? Will corporations be able to use the video to extract data to be mined for marketing?
Instead of spending money on fixing the crumbling infrastructure in our parks, this guy decides he’ll spend it on surveillance cameras. Just shaking my head at the pandering to the pearl-clutching paranoid voters.
Is it not possible that both could be done?
Sure it is, Chuck. Let’s raise the camping rates to cover it. 🙂
I see no problem with cameras if they are used discreetly. Watching campground entrance and exits, roadways and public areas such as playgrounds, pools, pavilions and outside the bath houses. Most campgrounds now have cameras in the offices and stores. The purpose is two fold. Protect the property and the safety of others.
Do these naysayers still shop at most stores? They all have cameras inside and outside.
I have cameras on my house and once when we had car break ins, the local police asked for a video of the ones pointing down my driveway and porch. The videos showed the attempted break ins and they caught the thieves.
My thoughts exactly
It’s not like your going to leave a pouch of Cocaine in a cubby in a vestibule at the park entrance. Don’t be silly, it’s for your own safety and if a first ammendment rally around a campfire should break out organically, the tape would never be used to follow-up on who was in attendance and pair it up to movement from cell phone tracking. Don’t be so paranoid, it’s for your own good and safety. Whats that? A FISA warrant based on video? Nah, never. They could never use a FISA warrant against a US citizen anyhow, they voted on it and no FBI lawyer would ever tell a lie to get one anyhow….
:-)))))))
I’m surprised, license plates readers were not also mentioned. I’m not crazy about either the cameras or license plate readers, but like it or not, they are going to increase in number, in all phases of our lives. There are many subdivisions near me, where the HOA’s or management companies have installed both. Yes, they both can serve a good service, but like a lot of preventive and security options they can also be misused. Unfortunately, in the world we live now, using tools for the wrong reasons is more prevalent.
Great discussions going on here in the comments today!
Tremendously entertaining, generally respectful and why I subscribe. ✌️😃
Yes, indeed!!
Just like having police patrol the neighborhoods or rangers checking in at campgrounds. Do you object to that? If it helps law enforcement I’m ok with it.