Written by Christina Drummond
This morning, the Seattle City Council had an initial hearing on the mayor's proposal to authorize a video surveillance program for four parks as early as June 2008.

The ACLU does not support video surveillance and does not support Seattle's proposal for many reasons, which Jennifer Shaw, our legislative director, presented to the Seattle City Council Parks and Seattle Center Committee.

People living in a free society should be able to enjoy public spaces without having to subject their actions to constant government monitoring. This particular proposal would record the activities of innocent people, while illegal acts move to just out of sight of the camera. At the same time, this proposal includes no mechanism to "watch the watchers" and monitor abuses like racial profiling and voyeurism.