From Yahoo news:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - An East Tennessee county that has beamed live 24-hour video from its jail on the Internet for nearly six years may nix the practice following complaints of harassment and security concerns.

Some viewers have been using the cameras to harass female jailers by calling them on the telephone and taunting them as they work, according to Anderson County sheriff’s officials.

In other cases, viewers are tracking inmate movements and using the information to coordinate deliveries of contraband to prisoners on work details outside the jail.

“It shows the public what we are doing. I like that idea,” said Anderson County sheriff Paul White.

“But by the same token, now that people are using it for bad things, we have to weigh the odds. The bad things that could happen are not worth the good things that happen out of it. And if you weigh the odds, it looks like we will have to shut it down.”

At least the sheriff understands risk, perhaps better than he even realizes, as well as technology as an unbiased enabler.

Cameras can allow fewer guards to monitor more area. Cameras can help provide oversight and prevent abuse. Cameras can also, however, invade privacy, both in intended (the inmates) and unintended (the guards) ways.

And as an article on the camera-ization of Chicago makes clear, some people are just not qualified to participate in the discussion:

“Hopefully it will make the crime rate drop and that should justify everything,” said Jeff Coates.