It took us more than 10 years to catch up to the top
perpetrators of 9/11. It took less than a week to catch up to the perpetrators
of the Boston Marathon bombing. Do we need any more proof that a new day has
arrived?
It’s largely about cameras. To paraphrase Allen Funt, we
should be smiling all the time. Chances are we’re in somebody’s viewfinder or
on a screen. Not a pleasant prospect for many of us who prize our privacy – but
then there are times when we need those cameras. The FBI reviewed security
camera recordings of two suspicious characters in the bombing. They put out
press releases with the best shots, and within hours, they had crystal-clear
pictures of the suspects, supplied by the public, because everybody has a
camera now, either in their smartphones or as compact standalone equipment.
Looks like the days of those police artist sketches are numbered. Funny how the
suspects in all those sketches seemed to look exactly alike anyway.
The two suspects in the Boston case knew in short order they had
nowhere to hide. Their pictures were everywhere. A convenience market security camera caught them in the process of a carjacking.
Confrontations with law enforcement followed; one suspect was killed, the other
one was captured alive, hiding in a boat in the backyard of a home. The public
were on high alert. In the case of Suspect Two, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a homeowner
noticed blood coming from the boat. A police helicopter
with a thermal imaging camera determined that Mr. White Hat was in there, and that
he was alive, though wounded. Police finally were able to capture him, and when
the news got out, citizens lined the streets wildly applauding every law
enforcement vehicle leaving the scene.
But it wasn’t simply about good police work. It couldn’t
have been done without cameras, the media – social as well as traditional – and
alert citizens. We should borrow one of the hands we’re clapping with, and pat
ourselves on the back.
As well as the folks who invented smartphones.
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