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Comment by fasteddie31003 | Hacker News Reader

I like how technology is making crime harder to get away with. CCTV has probably lead to convictions in 100,000's of cases over its lifetime and deterred many more. I can't think of many negative outcomes to society from CCTV systems. My hope is that AirTags will make petty theft harder to get away with too.

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CCTV only deters blue collar crime. White collar crime still has no equivalent deterrent. In a sense, CCTV helps us punish those who are already desperate. While not necessarily a negative in the abstract, in concrete terms one has to wonder why there's no CCTV cameras in executive offices, no screen recordings of everything they do on their computer.

Thank you for making this very important point.

Maybe not exactly the same thing, but there are tax auditors, tax audits, access logging (for some administrative systems), "know your customer" bank regulations and public insider registries for example.

But unfortunately, regulations only bind the weak: https://www.gq.com/story/no-irs-audits-for-the-rich

If we imprison the lower class, we can get them to work for free. There's no downside for the upper class. Cracking down on white collar crime is rife with downsides for the upper class, so we defund the IRS, EPA, etc

Desperation is just one reason people commit crimes.

Such as wanting what other people have. Such as vengeance.

If only we had to worry about people who were desperate, paying them off would actually work.

Just because something doesn't solve all problems doesn't mean it's still not incredibly useful for the problems it does solve. And plenty of crimes aren't out of class-based "desperation" at all -- e.g. rape or stalking.

So I'm not sure why you're acting like there's some intentional effort to target the lower class but not upper class. The US goes after white collar crime heavily as well -- you'll find out quickly if you try to embezzle funds from your employer.

Obviously, CCTV is effective against physical crimes. White-collar tends to be caught with digital records like bank reporting, e-mails and texts, and so on.

So I don't know what you mean when you say white collar crime has no equivalent deterrent. In a nutshell, databases are the equivalent.

Cops around here (a US city) routinely opt not to investigate property crime well into the five-figures, even when there's extensive video & other evidence. Like, they don't even give it a cursory attempt. I'm not sure adding more cameras will help.

Seattle? This has been a big problem. Even if you have video evidence, SPD, and the city attorney is not bothering.

One cop told a buddy "You've got insurance for a reason..."

I'm pretty sure it's most (US, at least) cities, really. It's like if it's not hassling poor people or writing traffic tickets (the two things I actually see them do, regularly) the cops just don't care, at all. Catching speeders and driving off homeless people. That's about it.

I’ve always wondered if they or one of their friends/family get robbed, would they actually investigate it? I’m just wondering to what extent their hypocrisy extends.

In my experience a lot of cops signed up for guns blazing action movie shit and are very reluctant to do their real job, which is mostly paperwork.

Remember that what is considered criminal can change over time and not always in a good direction.

A lot of people escape persecution from dictatorships by committing "crimes" and only get away with it because the system isn't perfect.

China is a good example of nazi-like concentration camps but with modern technology.

I do not see this the same at all.

Around my small city / burbs - crime is still rampant with cams everywhere. Many criminals now don hats/hoodies / masks.. but many do not.

I've got video or a dozen different people breaking into cars in the neighborhood - cops don't care, DA ain't gonna do nothing if they are caught - now I know some of the thieves in the area on sight, but can't do anything to them.

There are negative outcomes - they just aren't not in the news as much as they could be.

When people are less free and feel like everything they do is being recorded, they act less free. Chilling effects ripple over the years and people forget when being non-chilled was like.

AirTags aren't meant to recover stolen items, since they make noise to indicate they're not around their owner. The thief also gets a notification on their phone that they're carrying an unknown airtag with them

100'000's of cases of drug overdose deaths are at the direct hands of Purdue Pharmaceuticals and the Sackler family. Let's hope CCTV finds a way to punish them too. Oh wait...

You mean IRL crime, cybercrime is easier than ever to pull off.

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