Controlling Observation

2011-01-24

I saw this article in the New York Times today about several people in Chicago facing up to 15 years in prison for making audio recordings in public places of police officers. Illinois law (source) forbids audio recording another party without consent. The penalty is obviously ridiculous and in many cases may exceed those for rape or murder. But further, this application of the law is a troubling double standard.

Police officers routinely record their interactions with the public. Many police cruisers in the United States are equipped with audio-video recording devices. These devices record officers' every interaction with the public regardless of the consent of the person being stopped. Chicago police also operate one of the worlds most extensive CCTV surveillance systems monitoring public streets. I'm also under the impression that interrogations are typically recorded without the consent of the person being interrogated. It is well confirmed that the FBI (source) and NSA (source) routinely conduct unwarranted surveillance of phone and internet transmissions within the United States.

The double standard extends to photography too. For example, I have been harassed on three separate occasions for taking photographs on or near the Chicago public train system. One time in 2008, I was taking a photograph from an elevated train platform. An officer stopped me and requested my ID. I told the officer that taking photographs was not against the law and asked him why he stopped me and had requested my ID. He told me that there were concerns of terrorism, implying that I was a terrorist suspect for taking photographs. On the other two occasions, I was threatened more belligerently by transit workers for taking photographs from public sidewalks in view of the elevated train system but not on public transit property. One transit worker threatened to confiscate my camera. When I pointed out that they had no authority to tell me that I could not take photos from a public sidewalk, they became very confused and consulted with other workers.

Authorities want to assert omni-vision while denying the public the same privilege.