Technology Can Watch, But Neighbors Still See

Flock cameras. Automated license plate readers. Doorbell cameras. Security systems. Cell phones that know where we are.

I am an early adopter of technology, and I believe law enforcement should have the tools needed to protect our communities. We have security systems and doorbell cameras at both home and office.

Years ago, I was publisher and CEO of a newspaper in Illinois whose offices faced the state capitol. I had recently written a disaster recovery plan, put our team through drills and approved a surveillance camera purchase.

About a week after it was installed, someone entered our building during an incident that put every floor into lockdown. Camera footage showed the individual carrying a backpack similar to one later found a couple of blocks away containing a pipe bomb.

Our video was turned over to law enforcement. I was grateful we had it.

I have seen their value.

I have also seen what happens when technology gets the right information about the wrong person.

Someone stole my identity years ago.

I discovered it when my CFO and HR person asked if there was something I wanted to tell him.

Apparently, I had filed for unemployment.

Except I hadn't. I had never filed for unemployment, so the scammer had created an account in my name before I ever had one. They changed identifying information just enough to make it difficult for me to prove I was me.

They even gave fake Clarissa a fake dog with a fake dog name for a security answer.

I will give them this. They made fake Clarissa sound pretty impressive. They may have missed their calling as a creative writer.

I filed a police report, went to the unemployment office and started digging. Eventually, I traced an IP address associated with the fraud to Rochester, New York.

There was little I could do with that information here, although I was ready to make a trip to Rochester that afternoon.

Then I learned someone had attempted to purchase a home using my identity in Iowa.

I have never even been to Iowa.

That experience changed the way I look at data and came back to me as we began researching automated license plate readers (ALPRs).

Technology can accurately process information that was fraudulent from the beginning.

A camera may accurately photograph a plate. Software may correctly read every character. A database may correctly identify the registered owner.

But what if the plate was stolen, swapped or cloned?

Could an innocent person's vehicle identity suddenly appear somewhere that person and vehicle have never been?

That does not make me anti-law enforcement.

If an automated license plate reader helps officers find an abducted child, locate a dangerous suspect, recover a stolen vehicle or solve a crime, I want them to have that tool.

I also want to know who can search the information, why, how long it is kept, how it is shared and what happens when something goes wrong.

Supporting law enforcement and protecting privacy are similar beliefs.

But technology cannot replace a connected community.

A license plate reader may know a vehicle passed an intersection. A neighbor may notice the elderly woman across the street did not open her curtains this morning.

A doorbell camera may record someone walking onto a porch. A neighbor may know that person does not belong there.

A security system can alert us that a door opened. It cannot notice the young mother next door is struggling and could use dinner or simply someone checking on her.

Technology can watch.  Neighbors can care.

I want our law enforcement officers to have good tools. I also want neighborhoods where people know one another well enough to notice when something is wrong.

Maybe the safest community is not the one with the most cameras.

Maybe it is one where cameras are only one layer of protection, and neighbors are still looking out for and after their neighbors.

Because a camera can watch your house.

A good neighbor watches out for you.