Closer Than We Think By Arthur Radebaugh
In 1960 Arthur Radebaugh envisioned the police station of the future, the police station of today. Radebaugh’s illustration of this future police station was featured in his Sunday comic
“Closer Than We Think”. It is here that Radebaugh depicts a police station run less like a police station, and more like “a sort of always-connected war room” (Novak). In this edition of “Closer
Than We Think”, the precinct is adorned with television screens, perhaps broadcasting live-feeds of the surrounding area. A dispatch officer is seen barking commands at another man through a
TV screen. The dispatch officer menacingly points his finger off screen - he is almost closer in appearance to a military general than a police officer. Certainly, this is a menacing, …show more content…
In 2013 a spokesman from the city of Chicago stated that the city had a network of
22,000 cameras that had helped solve 4,500 crimes over a seven-year span. However, with over a million “serious crimes” reported in that time frame, surveillance cameras “helped solve less than one-half of 1 percent of them” (The Chicago Tribune). Similarly, a study in the United
Kingdom concluded that “video surveillance reduced crime only to a small degree… Video surveillance was found to have little or no effect on crime in public transport and city centre settings” (BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association). Further, there are restrictions in place on public surveillance in Canada, and these restrictions seem to be followed by police. The
Canadian Criminal Code states that if someone has a “reasonable expectation of privacy” then police may only conduct video surveillance “in respect of certain, specified offences and only with a warrant” (Department of Justice). These laws seem to be upheld, and the Supreme Court have penalized officers in the past for violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and conducting surveillance without a warrant (Department of Justice).
So, if CCTV surveillance isn’t a concern for most Canadians, what is there to
“Closer Than We Think”. It is here that Radebaugh depicts a police station run less like a police station, and more like “a sort of always-connected war room” (Novak). In this edition of “Closer
Than We Think”, the precinct is adorned with television screens, perhaps broadcasting live-feeds of the surrounding area. A dispatch officer is seen barking commands at another man through a
TV screen. The dispatch officer menacingly points his finger off screen - he is almost closer in appearance to a military general than a police officer. Certainly, this is a menacing, …show more content…
In 2013 a spokesman from the city of Chicago stated that the city had a network of
22,000 cameras that had helped solve 4,500 crimes over a seven-year span. However, with over a million “serious crimes” reported in that time frame, surveillance cameras “helped solve less than one-half of 1 percent of them” (The Chicago Tribune). Similarly, a study in the United
Kingdom concluded that “video surveillance reduced crime only to a small degree… Video surveillance was found to have little or no effect on crime in public transport and city centre settings” (BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association). Further, there are restrictions in place on public surveillance in Canada, and these restrictions seem to be followed by police. The
Canadian Criminal Code states that if someone has a “reasonable expectation of privacy” then police may only conduct video surveillance “in respect of certain, specified offences and only with a warrant” (Department of Justice). These laws seem to be upheld, and the Supreme Court have penalized officers in the past for violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and conducting surveillance without a warrant (Department of Justice).
So, if CCTV surveillance isn’t a concern for most Canadians, what is there to