This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Trapwire proves that Lakewood cameras are not what they seem to be

Trapwire program comes to Lakewood

The recent revelations regarding the federal government's latest infringement upon personal privacy detail exactly how far we have come in our society.  However, the most interesting point of the scandal is not the government surveillence, or the lying by the politicians, but the commentary that it makes on the state of our media in America.

If you are unfamiliar with Trapwire, it essentially is a nation-wide network of cameras that are independently located and operated with central management by the federal government, government agencies as well as private intelligence gathering companies.  These cameras have software installed on the backend that permit the user to monitor people, recognize faces, interpret possible "threatening" behaviors and flag potential threats, all in real time.  You can read the full artilce here at Wired.

Recently, the city of Lakewood installed "traffic monitoring" cameras on Detroit Rd. to mirror the ones installed a couple years ago on Clifton Boulevard.  At the time, they were sold as devices to streamline traffic flow.  In fact, Patch Lakewood recently had an article in which the devices were downplayed.  The title of the article was even ""  In fact, because of the website Wikileaks releasing emails from the Intelligence Company Stratfor, we know that this is indeed exactly what they are for.  As if this is not enough evidence, we also know that the cameras installed in Lakewood were purchased with federal grant money.  I wonder why the federal government is so interested in the traffic flow of Lakewood, Ohio?

Find out what's happening in Lakewoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

These revelations should give us pause when considering any news article that downplays potential insidious motivations for privacy or liberty-infriging actions carried out by the government or otherwise.  It should also give the people that supply the news more pause before disseminating information gleaned directly from government officials, lest it be misleading propaganda.  Facts need to be checked, and there needs to be a return to hard journalism that prioritizes truth over "maintaining good political connections".

It may seem that it's all doom and gloom, and unfortunately, in large part it is.  The fact is, that the people that are supposed to be steering this ship (government, media, business) have revealed their unwillingness or inability to "play it straight" with the people.  They cannot be trusted, and so the responsibility falls to us, the people.  Fact check your stories, hold politicians and journalists feet to the fires and demand that they uphold their responsibility to the people that they represent and the people they have an obligation to inform.

Find out what's happening in Lakewoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?