Privacy today seldom a given

Any senior peddling contraband Geritol may have to be a little more discreet in transactions meant to be consummated on the Allen County Elderly Services bus.
Tuesday commissioners discussed installing a surveillance camera on the bus to record all that occurs on daily runs.
While the temptation is to trivialize installation of a camera, the idea of having one aboard the bus makes good sense. That way there never will be any question about what may have occurred, if a liability issue arose.
Commissioner Tom Williams, then sheriff, introduced head-mounted cameras for his deputies a couple of years ago and very quickly found advantage. Shortly thereafter, a person who questioned what a deputy said occurred, meekly left the sheriff’s office after viewing a video of the incident.
The same rationale could be used for a camera on the bus. Sometimes how people remember what happened is embellished or changes in a short period of time.

SURVEILLANCE cameras are a fact of life in today’s world.
On any day it virtually is impossible to drive through downtown Iola without being recorded, which surely has put some second thoughts into the minds of would-be vandals and crooks.
When Great Southern Bank was robbed a few weeks ago, images recorded by cameras in the bank showed several clearly distinct photographs of the perpetrator. That he hasn’t been apprehended isn’t because law enforcement officers don’t know exactly what he looks like, and likely enforces the thought that he was passing through town and may even have done similar crimes elsewhere.
Also, outdoor cameras at the bank and elsewhere in the area tracked the robber’s movement before and after the crime, it just was that he was keen enough to park (assuming he had a vehicle waiting) where cameras lost his movement.

TRUTH BE known, it likely would surprise most folks to know how closely their movements in public are documented.
Taking it a step further, federal intelligence agencies with tracking satellites have the capability to “see” just about anything anyone does the minute a person steps outdoors, which shouldn’t be a concern of those who toe the straight and narrow, as we all should.
— Bob Johnson