Following the Ackerman Avenue assault earlier this semester, the Syracuse University community has been working toward solutions to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future. The Graduate Student Organization and the Student Association proposed that more closed-circuit television, or CCTV, security cameras should be installed off campus.

CCTV surveillance is not a preventive measure, it’s a retroactive one.

If installed, the cameras would be managed by the Syracuse Police Department. Video evidence would allow the department to continue to keep Syracuse streets safe, but it fails to address how the SU community is affected when criminal activity occurs nearby.

While security cameras can be useful for identifying suspects, their effectiveness is limited. Videos only become practical after crimes occur. Even when active camera operators alert police, the time it takes for authorities to be alerted gives criminals time to get away.

“The notion of the prevention of crime with this technology is that the presence of the camera will act as a deterrent to criminal behavior … But most crime is committed by people on an impulse, under the influence of drugs, or frankly, those who are just not very bright,” said William Staples, founding director of the Surveillance Studies Research Center at the University of Kansas, in an email.

He added that video surveillance is inconsistent in providing evidence or helpful information to authorities.

Also, silent video footage leaves too much open to interpretation for law enforcement authorities. When considering who manages the footage, we need to think about how it will be perceived and what actions will be taken with those perceptions in mind. If videos land in the hands of someone with preconceived assumptions about criminal identity, they may make rash conclusions based on the fraction of the incident they see.

The Department of Public Safety and SPD claim that the Ackerman Avenue assault was not a hate crime, but the circumstances of the incident imply that it was racially-motivated.

“Poor image quality, limited camera angles and a ball cap or hoodie can limit suspect identification,” Staples said. “And when functioning with such limited knowledge, operators develop a set of working rules and tend to find suspicious behavior in the usual suspects: groups of men, teenagers and people of color.”

Increased surveillance is not the appropriate response to the Ackerman Avenue assault. This is a deeper issue that requires us to address why some students on our campus don’t feel safe.

Jennifer Bancamper is a sophomore English and textual studies and writing and rhetoric double major. Her column appears bi-weekly. She can be reached at jbancamp@syr.edu.

Published on April 3, 2019 at 11:28 pm