Surveillance cameras expand in public, private

By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

If you're reading this article anywhere but the shades-drawn comfort of your own home, chances are increasingly good that someone or something has their eye on you.

Illustration by Greg Taylor • The Honolulu Advertiser

Or watch you, at least.

Advancements in surveillance technology — and an accordant willingness to use them — have led to a proliferation of video cameras in public and private spheres over the past quarter-century.

Cameras in the convenience store.

At the ATM.

On the highway.

Along the street in Chinatown.

In the cafeteria at Kaiser High.

Video cameras stand sentry in the malls, the post office, the workplace, even your neighbors' garage. Cameras for security, data collection, commerce, news, art.

Cameras for personal enjoyment — legal or otherwise.

Halau-Lani Davan of Spy World displays surveillance devices for sale. Cameras that can be hidden in books, lamps and clocks also are sold. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

"It was 1969 and I was in a record store in Washington, D.C.," he said. "I was shocked, absolutely shocked."

Over the years, Macdonald, like many of us, has become accustomed to cameras in public places. He even appreciates some of possibilities they've opened up.

During a stay in Hong Kong, for example, Macdonald was able to get real-time weather photos from Hawai'i on the Internet and relay the information to his wife at home.

"It seemed pretty innocuous," he said. "It was kind of Big Brother-ish, but not in such a bad way."

Macdonald's invocation of George Orwell's angst-inducing novel "1984" is all but unavoidable in a discussion of surveillance. While some scholars have argued that the Orwellian vision has wrongly influenced us to view all government surveillance as an attack on individual liberties, others say the evidence speaks for itself.

Last year, the Tampa, Fla., Police Department was roundly criticized for using "face scan" technology at the Super Bowl to identify criminals in the crowd.

In California, privacy advocates decried the arrival of Pedagog USA, a provider of mobile surveillance systems that use open-circuit television cameras. The technology has been embraced by the British government, which plans to have 2 million law enforcement surveillance cameras in place within the next three years.

Of course, governments aren't the only ones interested in keeping tabs on us. Individual access to high-tech recorders has paved the way for us to turn surreptitious lenses on one another. Last year, for example, the makers of the X10 wireless spy camera launched an aggressive online sales campaign that pitched the security benefits of the camera while showing images of attractive young (and presumably watched) women.

Macdonald, who holds academic credentials in multimedia and psychology, said he's not sure what to make of the widespread application of surveillance technology. He said he senses he's not alone.

"The era that we're living in, things don't seem as clear cut," he said. "I'm not sure if it's because I'm older or if the world is really just more ambiguous now. I do think that for better or worse, there has been a loss of privacy that has been rather appalling."

For Macdonald, the issue boils down to what function surveillance cameras are intended to perform in a given situation.

"If you're going to use a camera to improve public safety, and it actually does what is intended, I don't really have a problem with that," he said.

Thus, Macdonald said he is fine with security cameras at ATMs but resistant to the Department of Transportation's controversial traffic camera program.

Melvin DeCosta is a retired police captain and now security chief for the Kahala Mall. With the perspective of nearly 40 years of law enforcement and security work, he sees cameras as a valuable tool in assuring public safety and security.

"But they're just tools," he said. "They're a means, not an end."

DeCosta said the mall maintains security cameras both inside and outside the facility for the security of shoppers and merchants. The cameras are monitored by a dispatcher who can alert security employees to problems that arise on the grounds.

"The individual stores might have a camera behind the counter to closely identify a robber or to catch a clerk who might be stealing money," he said. "Our cameras are in common areas and places that we might consider 'hot spots.' "

Those hot spots might include areas with pay phones or places where adolescents might gather.

Most of the mall cameras are secured in high vantage points. There are two more visible cameras in the long, isolated corridors leading to the downstairs bathroom.

"Every once in a while we see someone jumping up and down and waving their arms," he said. "Sometimes seeing the camera entices people to act silly."

DeCosta said video from the mall cameras have been used to identify people or cars involved in break-ins in the parking lot.

Paul Nobriga was sitting at a table in the Kahala Mall last week waiting for his wife to finish shopping — unaware that he was in view of at least two security cameras. But he said it didn't matter.

"As long as someone isn't pointing a camera at my home, I don't care," he said. "If it's outside, someplace public, that's OK. It bothers some people, but not me. I'm not doing anything wrong."

That's also the attitude Peggy Pridgeon takes. Pridgeon, a nurse at The Queen's Medical Center, was at the mall winding down with a newspaper — aware but unconcerned that she also was being watched.

"I know (cameras) are around, but I don't pay any attention to them," she said. "Even where there aren't cameras, someone could be sitting in a car looking at you and you wouldn't know they're there. It's almost the same thing."

Pridgeon, who has seen fights and other disturbances break out while working in the hospital's trauma intensive care unit, says she appreciates the role cameras can play in maintaining a secure environment.

For others, however, the mere presence of a camera — regardless of its intended function — can be threatening.

Belinda Aquino, director of the Center for Philippine Studies at the University of Hawai'i, said certain immigrant Filipinos and other ethnic groups could be sensitive to being recorded, particularly following Sept. 11.

"I sense that some of these people can be bothered and intimidated by being watched," she said. "Since 9/11, the immigrant community has been watched and profiled and targeted.

"I think it is at least a matter of concern, and at worst a situation that is very intimidating. Having surveillance cameras all around would have a chilling effect on the immigrant community."

The impact of increased surveillance in our public and private life is difficult to determine, Macdonald said, but the idea brought to mind an experience he had in the late 1970s.

"I was in Safeway and I saw ("Hawaii 5-0" star) Jack Lord picking through oranges," he recalled. "He was dressed in a nice suit, and I remember thinking how difficult it was that he couldn't just go into public unshaven or dressed badly.

"I think we're all in that position now. No one may really care if I've shaved or not, but, still, when I step out into public now, I'm known."