Big Brother's unblinking eyes

Sikeston's newest cop doesn't eat, doesn't sleep and never blinks. This super cop patrols the schools and the public housing areas, looking for signs of something amiss, never missing a beat.

Sikeston's newest cop isn't human -- it's a collection of more than 20 cameras, set up in and around the city's schools, public housing areas and paths into and out of the city.

"It's no different than a police officer standing on the street corner, witnessing a crime and taking action," said Sikeston police chief Drew Juden. "The only difference is that you'll have that video that you can show to a judge or jury or anyone else."

Juden looks at the cameras as a way to keep the residents of Sikeston safe. The cameras can zoom, pan and tilt, allowing them to follow people and cars. And the Sikeston police are using the cameras for investigations.

The cameras that dot Sikeston street corners and schools are part of a larger trend affecting people across the country. As technology grows, authorities in universities, schools and cities are using advancements to their own ends, changing the expectation citizens have of privacy.

"You have to ask the basic question of a person in any given town who might or might not support the use of cameras, 'Would you want a camera looking in your driveway?'" said Jim Felakos, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Eastern Missouri. "That feeling of constantly being watched is something Americans aren't too fond of, and with good reason."

The ACLU is generally opposed to the use of cameras for surveillance, Felakos said. A person walking down a street knew in the past that his every movement wasn't being watched or recorded. Not so in today's world.

And the use of camera surveillance on city streets can often be unbalanced, affecting some demographics more than others.

The use of cameras often has the tendency to affect the poor and minorities more than affluent whites, said Felakos. This is the case in Sikeston, where the poor in public housing are subject to the unblinking eye. The cameras are located in public housing because funding for them came from a Housing Authority grant.

For now the residents of Cape Girardeau don't have to worry about their expectations of privacy colliding with police powers. Cape Girardeau police chief Carl Kennison said the city has no surveillance cameras.

But students in Cape Girardeau find themselves under the camera's gaze every day in both public and private schools. Central High and Notre Dame Regional High School both employ the use of cameras for security purposes. Cameras will also be an important tool at Jackson when new facilities are constructed.

Rob Huff, assistant superintendent at Central, said the district uses cameras in its career center and outdoors at the high school, with plans to add cameras soon at the junior high.

Huff said there isn't someone monitoring the cameras at all times, documenting student and visitor activity. But the cameras do have a dual purpose -- both security from outside threats and watching students to catch any indiscretions.

Some minor disciplinary actions have been taken against students using the cameras, Huff said.

Camera use in schools extends beyond the primary and secondary level to higher education. Southeast Missouri State University uses an extensive network of cameras in the hopes of making a more secure campus for students.

"The cameras are put in place for safety, and they work," said Southeast's head of the Department of Public Safety, Doug Richards. "They are a major deterrent."

Richards said the cameras have been used on numerous occasions to assist the university police in investigations.

Like Richards, Juden hopes that his department's unblinking eyes on the street can improve security for the law-abiding, even if their business on the street is less private than before.

"The reason we put them up is it's just another tool to make our community safer," said Juden. "We haven't had any complaints."

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182