This idea is a little spooky. It seems the city of Ogden, UT is considering using a blimp with cameras to take a little air out of the crime rate. Sounds a little “Big Brother” to me. Not quite sure where I stand with this type of surveillance. In a perfect world, this would only be used as a means to track down criminals and lead law enforcement types to the people responsible for crimes. But we don’t live in a perfect world. Here are a few examples of abusive use of surveillance camera (Source: notbored.org)

In NYC in Nov 2001 several ATM customers who lost thousands of dollars to thieves who were able to steal their PIN to make unauthorized withdrawals. The thieves used cameras disguised as ATM surveillance cameras to steal the information.

In Tuscaloosa, AL in Sep 2003 a people spending time in an area known as The Strip noticed the traffic camera was moving, paying attention to young women and other people in the area.

NYC (again), Apr 2004: A suicide captured on tape by a surveillance camera was posted on the web.

San Francisco, CA, Apr 2005: A police officer was caught using the SFO International Airport surveillance system to watch women

Somers Point, NJ, May 2007: A graphic fatal car accident captured on a traffic camera has been seen on the Internet

Surveillance cameras are very common is casinos, but usually they are used to catch people who try to cheat while gambling. At a casino in AZ in Jun 2004 the cameras were used to take pictures on women’s breasts.

For the complete list click here to get to the full article at notbored.org.

There was an incident not too long ago in the local ago where the county was using hi-res satellite images to see if people were complying with local building codes.  They were looking for things like sheds, pools and expanded driveways. If there were no records of permits bring issued and paid for, then the homeowner was sent a notice to pay. I am not a fan of this. I own the property and short of doing something illegal (growing pot, damming a stream, or building a rocket), the county should not have any say on what I do with my property.