Op-Ed: When fear meets technology, your evening walk ends up on video
There are a lot of reasons we walk alone. Sometimes it has to do with convenience, sometimes it’s our choice. We don’t always do it for the view or the exercise, or the solitude, or the freedom.
Sometimes it’s because we’re afraid of being watched, stalked, followed or even mugged…
It was on Halloween night in 1975 when two 13-year-olds walked out of a Philadelphia pizzeria late at night. The boys were armed with knives and they didn’t stop at the door. They walked in the street, cut a lady who was waiting to catch the bus a lot of times on her way to work, and then made off with her wallet.
The man who eventually caught them, who was armed with a camera, was himself later robbed by the boys. He was able to catch their pictures, but they were able to destroy their photographic evidence by cutting the film into pieces and then soaking the pieces in an acid solution. The acid destroyed the metal film, but the images were visible, albeit with an altered color.
The boys were caught after a couple of months. They were sentenced to life in prison, but the case was eventually forgotten. But while they were serving time, researchers were researching the phenomenon of crime scene photography, which allowed authorities to capture images of crime-scenes in all sorts of conditions, as well as to gather evidence.
The National Crime Victimization Study, conducted in 1980 by the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics, found in its first installment that, between 1979 and 1982, there was a 27% increase in the number of cameras used by law-enforcement agencies. The trend has continued over the ensuing decades.
The fact that cameras are now much more commonplace is not necessarily good news for society’s crime rate, however. In order to create images that are more convincing, modern camera technology has been developing. The latest cameras can capture stills, videos and photographs, often simultaneously, in real-time. This in turn gives police officers more ability to make their arrests more effectively and to investigate further, by