Surveillance Cameras
On the Mall
 March 22, 2002
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
2136 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Congresswoman Norton:
We want to express our gratitude to you and Congresswoman Morella for holding that most informative and necessary hearing today about the National Park Service's plans to place surveillance cameras on the Mall. It was broadcast on CSPAN-3.
The issue of surveillance cameras watching over our public spaces is too important to be decided privately by Park Service and other officials. It became clear from listening both to Mr. Parsons and to the experts from the American Bar Association and Rand Corporation that we simply don't know if cameras work to prevent terrorism. So why the rush? Why the attempt to fast-track a policy that requires careful study and open debate?
As you are probably aware, the National Coalition is working against the same kind of "security emergency" mentality with regard to the National Park Service's hasty and potentially disastrous plans for a tunnel into the Washington Monument. We are all in favor of intelligent security measures. We have been asking, as you did today, "Does the NPS plan actually meet the security need?" and "Where are the studies that show the effect of these measures on our American icons and our civic life?"
We hope your hearing is the first step towards a broader discussion that includes not only security experts but also, as you have proposed, philosophers, historians, and other broad thinkers able to put the security question into a larger context of what it means to live in an open society.
Sincerely,
Judy Scott Feldman, Ph.D.
Chairman
A similar letter was sent to Rep. Morella.
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