How Many Government Cameras are too many?

Photo by PoPville flickr user ekelly80

Yesterday TBD reported:

The District of Columbia currently has a network of around 50 red-light cameras and 30 speed cameras, nabbing thousands of drivers for traffic violations while putting millions of dollars into city coffers.

The D.C. police are hoping to install smaller, more mobile cameras in neighborhoods around town, catching drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks, block the box at intersections, or even fail to fully stop at stop signs, among other potential violations.

If you add in the crime cctv cameras, well, that’s a lot of cameras around town. Do you feel that these cameras (either crime or traffic enforcement cameras) have been effective? At what point, if any, do you think there will be too many cameras?

Do you support the addition of more cameras to catch traffic offenders who “fail to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks, block the box at intersections, or even fail to fully stop at stop signs”?

Would you support the addition of more CCTV cameras in hopes preventing street crimes?

Are these two (street crime/traffic enforcement) totally different issues that should not be mixed into one discussion?

If you object to more cameras is it because of privacy concerns or something else? Where do you think the balance between privacy and the public good rests?

Photo by PoPville flickr user sciascia