Eye on U.

Before last Friday, few if any students were aware of the Harvard University Police Department’s (HUPD) use of over 200 video cameras to monitor public areas on campus, including the Yard. While we applaud HUPD’s efforts to keep students safe, we are troubled by the secrecy surrounding video surveillance on campus. HUPD has a responsibility to discuss security with its constituents as long as that discussion does not jeopardize the goal of keeping students safe.

HUPD maintains that these cameras are used to protect students from crime—and not to catch students urinating on the John Harvard statue or running naked through the Yard. For example, in 2003 the cameras were used to identify the culprits in a string of projector thefts from the Kennedy School of Government. Moreover, data from surveillance cameras has never been used by the Administrative Board against a student.

The University has understandably refused to disclose the exact location of video cameras. Revealing this information would undermine the efficacy of existing security measures, as criminals would simply avoid areas under video surveillance.

Still, Harvard students can—and should—expect to be informed about the use of video surveillance on their campus. As these cameras exist only to protect students from outsiders, HUPD should be more forthright about their use. Even a short paragraph on the Harvard website would suffice. Yale’s website, for instance, explains that the University uses closed-circuit television monitoring and that “security systems are monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.” Alternatively, HUPD could discuss its security procedures during Freshmen Orientation Week.

No matter how the University decides to handle the situation, students deserve clear information about when, how, and why video surveillance is used. There are a string of questions left unanswered by last week’s discovery, including information about whether HUPD keeps permanent records of security footage. Open communication about these issues would foster both confidence and goodwill between HUPD and the student body, without impinging on HUPD’s goal of protecting the student body. As HUPD’s prime constituents, students deserve easy-to-access information about safety on campus.