New technology will allow police to see through walls with perfect vision. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has spent $120 million to attach them to the notorious LAPD helicopters that buzz around the city on a constant basis.
The intention of the cameras is to allow police to follow suspects who ditch a stolen car and try to run through alleys and backyards. With the new cameras, no wall will be able to block their view of the criminal and make it nearly impossible for a carjacker to escape.
On the negative side, the cameras will be able to see ordinary citizens through their houses as if the camera was in the house itself.
While the LAPD said they would never allow “casual sightseeing,” civil liberty organizations have huge, huge problems with this new form of invasion of privacy.
A lawyer for the ACLU said, “These ‘see-through’ cameras are the end of privacy as we know it. A guy with a camera a mile away can see directly into your bedroom and see exactly who you are and what you’re doing. Do you want the police watching you have sex? Do anything else you would in private?
“While we are for body cameras, these new ‘see-through’ cameras cross the line and are unconstitutional.”
The new ‘see-through’ cameras were developed as part of the military program to see through caves and tunnels in Afghanistan to hunt terrorist, but more money is to be made at home with police departments around the United States buying the expensive cameras.
“They can see into homes at night when certain adult acts are going on,” said privacy expert Ritchie Tenenbaum. “It starts as a car chase and turns into the biggest peeping tom plan in history. I don’t think many celebrities in the Hollywood Hills want to have the police seeing their private lives.”
“Does the average citizen want a cop sitting outside their house or apartment and seeing exactly what they are doing? We don’t think so and are planning a lawsuit to stop the practice.
“I think we can all agree that a few carjackers can go free versus all of Los Angeles being seen by the police in the privacy of their own homes.”
