Fighting Crime From Above?

In a case of who's watching the watcher – the watcher has been busted. Cynthia Williams from WSMV reports:

Corrections Officer Joshua Woodard admitted to using jail security cameras to zoom in on two female inmates who were taking showers last Monday, said police.

It turned out Woodard was being watched, too; there was another set of security cameras in dispatch. When he inappropriately zoomed in on the women, he was arrested and later fired by Sumner County Sheriff Bob Barker.

"We're not going to tolerate it. We will terminate and prosecute anybody who commits this type of activity," Barker said.

Woodard, who has worked at the jail for two years, was charged with unlawful photography, which is a misdemeanor. He has not had any other major disciplinary problems.

This is an interesting case because in this situation, a male guard had to watch females shower.  In the world of police body searches, usually a female officer is called in to search a female suspect.  Why this male guard was put in a situation like this is troubling.  While I think surveillance cameras "watching the watcher" is good in some circumstances, in this case, female officers should have been watching the females shower and that practice may be enough to remove the extra level of oversight.

I'm sure there will be a big lawsuit and settlement that comes of this.  Here's the rundown:

1. The taxpayers pay for the cameras and the salaries of the people watching them
2. A male officer was put in a situation that should have been avoided
3. The male officer gets arrested, fired, and publicly humiliated
4. The taxpayer will pick up the bill of the lawsuit / settlement

It's no wonder why a detective on the UK's police force has called public CCTV initiatives an utter fiasco. When will government in the US understand this to be true? Technology, practices, and context play a huge role in the success or failure of these installations. Putting men in charge of watching women shower was just a dumb idea.