Tom Washington: City council ignored public comments opposing pole cameras

To The Daily Sun,

The Laconia City Council’s decision to purchase pole cameras to deploy around our city is a needless step toward a surveillance state that is out of step with what city residents want and what New Hampshire claims to value.

The city and police have provided no real argument as to why the government needs greater ability to surveil us. Laconia has low crime rates. The police already are able to keep this community safe.

Equally troubling is that the defense of these cameras has been built off of half-truths and outright lies. Defenders point out that these are not Flock cameras, which is true. While Flock cameras are designed to only read license plates, these cameras capture everything we do, so these cameras are more invasive than Flock cameras. Furthermore, defenders have at times suggested that all these cameras do is replace existing ones. That is a lie. The city is purchasing more cameras than those that need replacing. And these new cameras have additional surveillance abilities that the prior cameras did not have.

All of these legitimate issues were raised to the city council at the Sept. 14 meeting. The public comments were heavily opposed to the proposal. But the city council ignored the will of the people who actually live in this community and stepped toward forcing us to live in a surveillance state. As the council meeting showed, we cannot force councilors to listen to their constituents. But we can vote them out when they refuse to listen. Vote the five councilors, and mayor who supported this, out of office when we next get the chance so we can get councilors and a mayor who listen to the people, respect the New Hampshire way of life, and protect our liberty and privacy.

Tom Washington

Laconia