Boston to install street camera to monitor crime, public security threats

Our British readers may be used to cameras on every street corner of major U.K. cities, but Americans are not. Little wonder, then, that a street camera plan by the city of Boston is causing controversy. If the city has its way, then, by January, Boston will install about forty sophisticated surveillance cameras in Chinatown, along Boston Harbor, and in high-crime areas, probably including Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury. Mayor Thomas Menino said last week he believed the digital cameras can be an effective tool against crime. “Any technology or any operation that we can use that will help us combat violence in the streets of our city, we’re going to look at very seriously,” he said in an interview.

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Cameras such as this one were used by the City of Boston last June during the Democratic National convention and then taken down. The cameras are going up again (Globe Staff Photo / Lane Turner)