Steven Greenhut on Surveillance Sneaking Its Way Into Cities

In 1966, the then-Supreme
Court Justice William O. Douglas warned about an
“alarming trend whereby the privacy and dignity of our citizens is
being whittled away.” Each step is imperceptible, he wrote, “but
when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a… society in which
government may intrude into the secret regions of man’s life at
will.” What would Douglas think about the post-9/11 world?
 Perhaps people feel powerless to confront federal programs,
writes Steven Greenhut. But a new effort from the ACLU hopes to
empower them to confront local authorities who embrace similar
technologies by prompting cities and counties to pass an ordinance
requiring a public debate and oversight of any such new
technologies.

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