10 Reasons to Oppose Police Surveillance Cameras in Ocean Beach

Here are 10 reasons to oppose the ten police surveillance cameras being installed along OB’s waterfront.

1. The cameras are unconstitutional – they are violations of both the First and Fourth Amendments. They violate our right of assembly and right of association. They are an unreasonable search and seizure of our persons and of our images

2.  The cameras violate our right to privacy. Citizens do have the right to certain privacies – even on the beach or in parks; lawful citizens have the right not to be subject to surveillance  by government or police. In this age of government surveillance via emails and cellphones (especially as have been uncovered by Edward Snowden), concern for citizens’ rights to privacy are heightened.

3.  Video Surveillance has chilling effect on public life. Cameras bring subtle but profound changes to the character of our public spaces, as citizens behave more self-conscious and less free-wheeling.

4.   The police have not submitted any statistics on crimes at the beach or other empirical data  to justify the cameras.

5.   Without debate, the cameras were thrust upon the Ocean Beach community at large without a proper vetting, notice, or even discussion by all within the community.

6.   The $25,000 to be spent on the cameras can be better spent – on funding additional police officers, other equipment, or on assistance to the homeless, or to OB’s aging infrastructure, the Library, the Lifeguard station, public restrooms, etc.  As is, it’s a waste of our money.

7.   The justifications offered for the cameras fall flat.

– There is currently a 36-year low in rates of violent crime and crime against property in San Diego; by zip code, OB has only the 13th highest crime rate in the City of San Diego.

– No child has even been abducted off the beach at OB; there are temporary “lost kids” every summer.

–  If the police know of “hot spots” – have police check on the sites, have officers out of patrol cars;

– The cameras will not help the lifeguards; they don’t have staff to monitor videos (in fact, the lifeguards are understaffed); lifeguards need assistance in “real time”, and there have not been that many persons completely lost off the beach.

–  The cameras at Mission Beach and PB are cited, but there are no statistics from them, and there’s doubt whether those cameras are even working.

– There’s a big difference between private cameras – like the one atop on the OB Hotel – and public cameras such the ones being installed; there is no opposition to businesses having security cameras; we’re talking about public cameras – with private viewings;

– There is also a big difference between the surveillance cameras at the beach with the body-cams worn by police officers.

8.   Surveillance cameras and viewings are subject to both public and private abuse.

9.   The San Diego Police Department cannot be trusted with surveillance videos; despite the excellent work by individual officers, this is the same department that refuses to release the private surveillance video taken of the fatal police shooting of an unarmed man in the Midway District area.

10.   It’s one more step towards Big Brother. We have a society that is moving in the direction of being one where everybody is constantly under surveillance.

In the end, there is very little public benefit – while the surveillance cameras are a huge intrusion into our public space.

A free people need to be secure in the knowledge that they are not being spied upon by their government.

Do you have any other reasons? Let us know.

There is the first of a series of public community forums on the cameras on Wednesday, Dec. 9th, at the OB Rec Center, 4726 Santa Monica Ave., from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.