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Tiny Cameras

March 01, 2003 — CSO — If you've flown out of LAX recently, you might have seen one of the 1,200 new surveillance cameras—or perhaps you didn't see anything at all. The new digital cameras are a lot smarter than the analog devices currently in place at other airports, and they're also a lot smallerso small, in fact, that the public just might not notice them. "The newer equipment requires less space, it's more concealed, and it can hold quite a bit of memory and electronics," spokeswoman Nancy Castles says. "If you know what to look for, you can see it."

And if you don't, well, you won't.

Right now, walk into any branch bank, and you'll probably see those familiar half domes on the ceiling. But a growing number of surveillance cameras, even if they're not deliberately hidden, are so small it takes a skilled eye to scout them out. The NYC Surveillance Camera Project has posted the location of public cameras in New York City to raise awareness about surveillance. The group's website (www.mediaeater.com/cameras) has pictures, complete with red circles and arrows.

All of which leaves security chiefs with a whole new decision to ponder: to tell or not to tell. In England, it seems, the question has been answered. Whether citizens are on the subway or walking down the street, they encounter signs warning them that they're on camera. But such warnings are still relatively uncommon in the United States.

"Some kind of sign that they're there not only warns people, it acts as a deterrent," says William G. Staples, a sociology professor at the University of Kansas.