In N.J., cameras follow you everywhere

In N.J., cameras follow you everywhere
Sunday April 21, 2013, 12:04 AM
BY  ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITER
The Record

They are watching as you work out at the gym, wait for a train, drive a car or walk down the street.

Video surveillance cameras, both private and public, are just about everywhere — observing people as they go about their daily lives, typically recording hour after hour of mundane footage.

But when something unusual happens, video can be a potent tool for law enforcement. A multitude of pictures — from retailers’ security cameras, but also from thousands of personal phone cameras — gave police in just days compelling visual evidence to zero in on men they suspected to be responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings. And with so many cameras positioned in key spots, it is becoming commonplace to have video of a crime scene or activities that provide authorities with invaluable information.

Such information comes at a cost, however, as civil rights advocates are quick to point out. Increased use of video surveillance, along with other tracking technologies, such as E-ZPass transponders and GPS chips in phones, creates a danger, they say, by recording too much information about innocent citizens — data that can easily be accessed by the government no matter who does the recording.