The Leiby Kletzky Murder: Will More Surveillance Cameras Make Our Kids Safer?
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Photo: saebaryo / Creative Commons license
It’s every parent’s nightmare: earlier last week, an 8-year-old boy went missing after taking a wrong turn on his first walk home alone from day camp in a Brooklyn neighborhood. A mere seven blocks, with his mother waiting halfway -- but he never made it. A massive two-day search ended in the heart-wrenching and shocking discovery of Leiby Kletzky’s dismembered body in a neighborhood man’s apartment -- several blocks away in the same neighborhood. The decisive break in this disturbing case came from security camera footage which caught the final movements of Leiby, which led to the eventual identification and capture of his killer.
In the wake of the murder, local politicians now want to give New York City businesses tax breaks to encourage them to install more surveillance cameras, ostensibly under legislation called “Leiby’s Initiative.”
But will this actually prevent future kidnappings? Taken at face value, this measure might seem to make sense, especially in our society’s culture of fear, obsession with ‘safety’ and litigation.
However, as parents and citizens we desperately need to examine the basis and potential consequences of this knee-jerk reaction to what is in fact, an incredibly rare and unlikely event.
Blogger Lenore Skenazy of Free-range Kids brings up the sobering point that it is statistically more likely for a child to die in a car accident than to be abducted. In fact, it’s more likely the media’s overemphasis on cases like Leiby’s that gives an illusion of prevalence, leading parents to "dangerize" childhood:
It is hard to get a grip on how uncommon a crime like the Kletzky murder is, because it is precisely those uncommon crimes that are exceedingly common on TV. They start out on the news and then get recycled in the crime dramas and “special investigations” and, eventually, on the anniversary shows (smarmily marketed as “tributes”), to the point where the story becomes indelible. Then, when we ask ourselves whether it is safe for our kids to walk outside, up pops Lieby Kletzky’s photo, like the top story in a Google search. And just like that top Google item, it seems the most relevant, even though actually it is the least. It is so easily accessible because it is so rare.
It is absolutely necessary in our culture of media over-hype to look at things with perspective. So does this singular crime mean we stop our children from crossing the street, getting into our car, or walking alone when they are ready? Of course not.
Building a "surveillance society"
Even more importantly, we need to consider precedents like Britain, which has by the far the largest number of security cameras in the world -- 5 million -- or about one for every 12 people. This proliferation at public expense has raised concerns that Britain is fast becoming a “surveillance society” where cameras have been reported to have no effect on reducing crime, but citizens do feel increasingly under the eye of an Orwellian “Big Brother.”
We have to ask ourselves: what kind of society do we want to build for our children? One that is based on fear, paranoia, mistrust and disbelief in our children’s tentative steps toward independence? There are already thousands of cameras bristling in New York's streets. Many US schools are already have surveillance cameras, metal detectors and draconian zero-tolerance rules, a questionable path in whether it promotes safer environments or criminalizes and dehumanizes our kids. Anecdotally, we hear of kids being chauffeured to and from their school bus stops, sometimes only a block away, for fear of something "bad" happening. How much can we protect our children from the bogeyman before it becomes stifling, as we inadvertently raise a generation of sheltered, fearful and dependent kids?
There's no doubt that it is a delicate balancing act between when to protect and shelter our kids, and when to let them go. But faced with this horrific tragedy, it’s clear we need to face our own fears as a society and not let collective paranoia overtake our own good judgment as parents. We are builders of the culture we want -- whether it is based on fear -- or on courage, hope and solidarity.
What do you think of the Leiby Kletzky case? What do you think could be done and would increased surveillance will help?
More on Dealing With Fear
Raising a Child in the Age of Terrorism
Why It's Good To Scare Your Kids
Why I Vow to Put My Child in Danger
What Happens When We "Dangerize" Childhood
