Jennie sez, "Two Seattle suburbs (of the super affluent persuasion) are monitoring and recording every vehicle that enter their town limits. If you happen to have had a past criminal infraction, you will be followed by police. Creepy and overzealous! By the way, residents of these towns are so community oriented that they also refuse to pay property tax to support their local county library system. But don't worry, they're 'not elitist at all,' according to a local council member."
In Medina, a new sign bears this warning: "You Are Entering a 24 Hour Video Surveillance Area…"
Medina — a city of 3,100 with an average household income of $222,000 — had discussed the idea for years as a way to discourage crime, city officials said.
Last year, there were 11 burglaries, Chen said.
"Some people think [that number of burglaries] is tolerable," he said. "But even one crime is intolerable."
Medina City Councilmember Lucius Biglow said crime prevention "outweighs concern over privacy."
"Privacy is considerably less nowadays than it was, say, 50 years ago," he said. "I think most of us are pretty well-documented by the federal government … simply because of the Internet and credit cards."
Cameras keep track of all cars entering Medina
(Thanks, Jennie!)
(Image: MARK HARRISON / THE SEATTLE TIMES)
