Baltimore County Bill Accomplishes Nothing

The Baltimore County Council has succumbed to the belief that a camera can prevent crime by passing legislation that requires most shopping centers in the county to install surveillance cameras. According to the Sun story:

the law requires owners of about 100 shopping centers - about half of those in
the county - to install video surveillance cameras that cover 75 percent of
their parking areas during business hours.

The new law is in response to the brutal murder of a teacher at Towson Town Center last month. But this law would not have prevented the murder. No amount of cameras is actually going to prevent a violent crime from happening. The only thing that a camera is good for is potentally identifying suspects who may have committed a crime. Hardly a good deterrent from keeping a potential victim from being harmed.

The new law is going to make people fell safer, but will not actually improve safety at these retail facilities. The only person who can protect the average citizen from being a victim of crime in any given situation is the average citizen, through an awareness of one's surroundings or through personal protection (an option not usually afforded to average citizen in this state these days). An increased police or physical security presence would also deter criminals from scoping the area as well.