Cameras are not the holy grail

The current debate over police bodycams reminds me of a time when a prospective parent demanded we place cameras in preschool spaces so that she could check in on her child at any time. I said no.

Cameras are intrusive, think surveillance, spy movies and Orwell's 1984. Their entire raison d'etre is to remove privacy as we see in the current popularity of "First Amendment Auditors" who are pushing the legal boundaries of what is public and what is not.

This battle can be even more contentious when it comes to children and parents can be quite aggressive over privacy. I have seen photos of families with the children's faces blurred out. Newspapers now routinely mask the faces of children. Schools often no longer publish images of events, sports days, homecoming and pay for models when producing marketing material rather than photographing their own successes.

I also feel that a demand for cameras means a lack of trust in the school, its teachers and its leadership. This lack of trust is the real issues, not the presence or absence of a camera and if a prospective partner enters a relationship already mistrustful, then the future can only be dark.

Similarly, if a camera is all it takes to create trust, then that too is problematic as it allows all involved to relax their involvement.

The third and not insignificant point is that the London Police were reported to have said that cameras do nothing to reduce crime. All they do is to provide evidence if a perpetrator is caught. London of course is, or was, famous for having the most cameras and the most surveilled population in the world. It is also famous for its high crime and violent crime rates.

I remember at one school where we had a camera / intercom system on the gate, ideally placed to capture a clear image of the thief's face and thumb's up as he stole stole it. Its replacement showed a hooded miscreant disappearing behind it to disconnect and remove it. Neither was caught and the cameras were not recovered.

Cameras are not especially useful in schools. What is useful is people and relationships.

**Questions or comments below. Let me know what you think.**