Surveillance and Safety

As the various questions fly around the surveying of American citizens by their government, much of the focus has been on privacy and the trade-offs that we should expect or be willing to make for the sake of one or the other. But, another set of questions is lurking in the background about what role surveillance actually has in creating safety.

I was fortunate enough to visit Kilmainham Goal in Dublin, Ireland just a couple weeks ago with my mother. The museum raises a lot of thoughts about how we see safety and surveillance as hand in hand. Kilmainham is an excellent example of the panopticon theory in practice. Even though the practices of isolation, silence, and constant observation were documented to drive prisoners insane, these practices have all carried forward in various ways, not just in prisons, but our larger sense of what makes us safe.

One of the most thought provoking pieces of information I learned from the museum was impact of mug shots. Before taking pictures of all incoming prisoners became common practice, it was quite easy for criminals, upon release, to invent new identities. If they were repeat criminals, they would not be charged as such if they had made sufficiently strong aliases. Once the photographing began, however, it became much more difficult to disguise one's self sufficiently to avoid being punished more harshly for repeat offenses.

Contemporary technology is giving us many more tools expand on this principle. In a few weeks when I go to apply for a visa to live abroad, my finger prints will be recorded. To switch my driver's license to another state, I had to bring several forms of ID and proof of my new address. My social security number helps verify who I am to the world. In many ways, the record keeping of humanity has made life more organized, as well as making it easier to pick out people who are not playing by the rules that governments establish.

The question is, does any of that surveillance actually dissuade me from committing crimes? I do not doubt that the U.S. government has stopped many crimes through surveillance. But, does it do anything to change the character of the surveilled? If I think I need something badly enough or deserve something enough, will the fact that I might be seen in the appropriating of it going to stop me?

I think surveillance is part of life. I think it can be a very good part of life. I think it can be part of making us all safer. But, it will never provide the kind of safety that making the world a just place will. When we feed the hunger, take care of sick, visit those in prison, cloth the naked--these things make us safe. Justice is building a world that we all want to be a part of it: not because it is perfect or always comfortable, but because it cares enough to ask us where it hurts before we have to lash out in our pain.