Tennessee's Department of Transportation has given a $45,000 contract to the University of Tennessee to study the ethics of red light cameras -- the cameras that watch intersections and take photographs of people who run red lights.
According to the Knoxville News Sentinel:
Many privacy advocates will decry a 'Big Brother' approach to law enforcement regardless of the safeguards put in place to protect citizens," the researchers write in a planning document.
"Many have raised scenarios such as a married man riding with a woman other than his wife being photographed by an enforcement system. If the photographic evidence accompanying a citation generated by an automated system shows the man and his passenger, the wife could see these pictures and question the husband's fidelity," the document says.
"By identifying these ethical considerations in advance, the research team may allow the state to develop a strategy to address privacy concerns before they are raised by outside groups," the planning document says.
The report is due back to the DOT no later than July 1, 2008.
Comments