Section A · Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Thursday, October 23, 1997
PRIVACY IS BEING LOST AS MORE PEOPLE ARE
WATCHING EVERY
Story by Brandon Copple
Illustration by Jeremy Shellhorn
Lori Wallau spends about 20 hours a week on camera. She works at SuperTarget, where surveillance cameras record every move she makes. Whether she is helping a customer, fooling around with a co-worker, stocking shelves or fixing her hair, it is all on tape. But she doesn't seem to mind.
"I don't even think about it," said Wallau, Topeka junior. "Nobody really talks about the cameras, and you kind of forget they're watching."
Surveillance cameras are taping all the time, and businesses like SuperTarget are not unique. You are on camera every time you stop for gas or liquor, shop at a convenience store, use an ATM or visit a hospital. Your boss might be watching. So might your favorite restaurant and that nice couple for whom you babysit.
Sometimes surveillance technology also listens, and in today's online world, it could be sharing your image with people around the world. The Sandbar, 117 E. Eighth St., posts live bar scenes on its World Wide Web site. Other Internet sites provide links to surveillance cameras around the world.
Surveillance in today's world is pervasive and
sophisticated. It can protect your body and secure your property, but it may also invade your privacy and limit your personal freedom.
"Nobody gets in or out of here without us knowing about it."
Hidden audio and video already
Such stealth is not uncommon, Fisher said. Covert surveillance provides candid information about employees and how they act when no one is watching.
Mark Davidson Supertarget security manager
If a monitor behind the counter is not subtle enough, there are less visible products available. Fisher sells pencil-sized cameras that can watch a whole room from inside a smoke detector or exit sign.
Most of us, like Wallau, don't object to being watched, which may be why we are watched so much.
Bill Staples, associate professor of sociology and author of the new book "The Culture of Surveillance," said surveillance abounded because we allowed it and sometimes felt it was necessary. The result, according to Staples, is a significant erosion of privacy and freedom to move about.
Miller Mart, like many of Fisher's customers, also uses surveillance to deter crime. If that does not work, the cameras help law enforcement catch criminals.
Video is not the only means of surveillance, but it is the most common. Video surveillance has become its own industry. Retail business is the best customer. From the corner gas station to the mammoth discount store, the surveillance camera is as common as the cash register.
A small business typically installs four cameras. With a video recorder and a digital multiplex monitor, the system costs between $1,200 and $5,000.
"We allow ourselves to be drawn further under the microscope because we have this perception that business has to do this because this is what the world's coming to," he said. "We think they're not watching us because we're not doing anything wrong. But they are watching — they're watching everybody."
At Miller Mart, 1801 W. Second St., a camera the size of a man's shoe is mounted behind the cashier. It tapes 24 hours a day, recording whatever goes on at the counter.
Assistant manager Deborah Moore Kirk said the camera was used primarily to monitor employees. "It lets us know what it's going on with them so we don't have to be here all the time," she said.
The ability to watch
A view from Memorial Stadium overlooking the parking lot behind the Kansas Union. Many parking lots have cameras watching the lots. Photo by Geoff Krieger/KANSAN
without being present leads many small business owners to invest in surveillance technology, said Mark Fisher, Surveillance Tech salesman.
"It protects you from vandalism, shoplifting and employee theft, and the equipment is affordable," he said. "If you own a retail business, you've got to have surveillance."
Sounds like a sales pitch, but it works. Fisher makes a living selling surveillance equipment in Lawrence. He said it was getting tough to find retailers that did not use surveillance.
are common in commercial settings, and it may be coming to a living room near you soon. Surveillance Tech rents a camera concealed in a clock specifically designed for parents who want
to spy on their babysitter.
"Parents hear these horror stories about kids getting abused," Fisher says. "They see surveillance as a way to prevent that."
Fear is a driving force in the sur-
veillance boom, Staples said.
"It's usually just one incident out of a million, but the media grabs it and scares the hell out of people," he said. "Parents are willing to go to extremes to protect their kids, and they don't think about what they're giving up, like their kids' freedom to go through life without being watched all the time."
Just such an incident, a kidnapping in a discount-store parking lot, prompted Target stores to implement surveillance in the 1980s. Today SuperTarget uses 37 cameras to watch every part of the store except bathrooms and fitting rooms. Those cameras record you
as you move through the store, walk to the parking lot or make a right or left turn onto Iowa Street
Blanket surveillance is the rule at SuperTarget, said Mark Davidson, security manager.
"Nobody gets in or out of here without us knowing about it," he said.
Davidson said that most customers were not watched on live monitors. Target security reviews tapes only after an incident has occurred. When nothing goes wrong, the tapes are not viewed.
Every form of surveillance has its good points, and the cameras can be a comfort. When you are walking alone through a dark parking lot, you will be glad someone is watching, even if it is a police dispatcher looking at a television screen a block away.
The University of Kansas Medical Center provides just such a service, using about 40 cameras to help prevent criminal activity in and around the Med Center.
Police Chief Rick Johnson said the cameras served the same function as an officer on patrol.
"One officer can patrol several remote areas by watching the monitors, which takes pressure off our staff without jeopardizing anyone's safety," he said. "It's not that different from a patrol car."
Staples said most surveillance was intended to benefit society. However, he said he was concerned good intentions were paving the road to a state of permanent visibility where every move people made would be recorded.
"Sure it's good when they use surveillance to catch a criminal," he said. "But how many of us did they
watch to catch that one person, and why should we allow them to gather all this evidence against us when we're not doing anything wrong?"
We allow it, in part, because surveillance in a public place is perfectly legal. The law recognizes a right to privacy only where there is an expectation of privacy. Dick Kurtenbach, president of the American Civil Liberties Union in Kansas City, Mo., said surveillance by private business was acceptable as long as employees and customers knew they were being watched.
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