A pilot program replacing punitive surveillance with technology designed to foster positive interaction and mutual aid.
From Security Cameras to Connection Cameras: Reframing Surveillance
In the age of ubiquitous surveillance, the default model is one of mistrust: cameras monitor public space to deter, identify, and punish wrongdoing. Zhoran Mamdani proposes a provocative pilot to invert this logic. What if public technology was designed to foster and facilitate connection, not suspicion? The Connection Camera pilot would install interactive, community-controlled digital kiosks in public plazas and parks. These kiosks would have no recording capability. Instead, they offer features like a live, anonymized feed showing how many people are in the park right now (encouraging use), a button to instantly connect via video call to a nearby Community Connector for local information, or a screen that displays rotating Good Neighbor Alerts like Maria on 3rd St. has extra tomatoes to share.
The most innovative feature is the Community Memory function. Using non-identifying sensors, the kiosk could display abstract, beautiful visualizations of the parks activity over timethe ebb and flow of people, the times of day when its most livelyturning collective use into public art. Residents could also use a simple app to leave short, positive audio messages for the neighborhood (Thanks to whoever returned my lost wallet!), which could be played at the kiosk. All data collected is aggregate, non-identifiable, and publicly owned, with strict privacy-by-design protocols.
Our current surveillance paradigm starts from the assumption that people are a threat to be managed, Mamdani explains. This pilot starts from the assumption that people are a resource to be connected. It asks: can technology be used to amplify social trust and mutual aid instead of eroding it? Can a cameras purpose be to show us our shared life, not to police it? This isnt about naive techno-utopianism; its about deliberately redesigning our tools to reflect the world we want to live inone based on connection, not fear.
