Why don’t we have IQ tests for drivers? Opponents of cameras often cite privacy issues, but today cameras are so ubiquitous that we have to assume we are being photographed every time we go outside.

While I know this and don’t feel intruded upon by the knowledge that I’m likely being filmed (not that I consider myself worthy of being on film), there something about the red-light camera that is different – cold and inhuman. If I were filmed committing some other crime, at least a human being would come and arrest me and the film would be used as evidence against. With the stoplight camera, you might catch a flash out of the corner of your eye, spend the next week wondering if you were caught and then an envelope appears telling you that you’re guilty. The camera does not feel like evidence, but like judge, jury and conviction all in one flash.

The citizens of Arizona are considering banning these camera devices and I wish Redwood City would consider the same thing. In Redwood City, there is currently a camera at Whipple and Veterans Boulevard, but they intend to add more in places like the intersection of Woodside Road and Broadway, and the intersection of Veterans Boulevard and Woodside Road. While I want our city to be safer, it creeps me out every time I see those cameras perched up there like vultures waiting to scavenge money off some passerby.

How do you feel about the cameras?