Re: Virtual Railfan camera? A real answer? Fullerton and many other public places should have public camera's for public safety.
Author: BOB2
Date: 02-05-2024 - 11:18
All public rail stations should have multiple cameras and as many as possible should be available to the public.
Public cameras are not a violation of your "right to privacy", when you choose to go into a public space. You have no "right to privacy" in a public place like a transit or rail station, or while driving on a public road, nor when shooting someone in a road rage incident on the freeway, nor, when engaging in lewd conduct, engaging in drug dealing, or committing acts of prostitution, or committing vandalism, or carryig out a robbery... in a public park, public parking lot, or on a public sidewalk.
You have no right to public privacy in a public space, if I can witness it, so can the camera. Surveillance of private space is an entirely differnt matter, which is why things like Caltrans cameras have a policy of only access views of public spaces, and are restricted in their range and placement.
The more eyes on our public spaces, the safer are public spaces are, according to the data. Crime goes down when you have proper public surveillance, and live web cams are a valuable serive to help our traveling public, which is why Caltrans makes much of their camera coverage available to traffic data service providers. Many of these efforts underwent legal review and folks found no problems with most public access to camera's covering public spaces.
If the City of Fullerton had concerns about a third party, that is another issue. If they are those outlined in the post above, then some of that seems to be overblown, and even a bit silly. The camera's should be used at Fullerton, and available to folks on-line like they are at San Juan Cap and other Stations, not just for railfans but for passengers, to check things like weather, or if the trains are running on time.