Waste Watchers, the latest breed of fighters in the war on terror

Chicago - A program called Waste Watch, at least in Chicago, enlists especially trained garbage collectors as eyes and ears in order to detect and report suspicious activities of American citizens - ranging from terrorists to Peeping Toms to pot smokers.

While the Russian Federation has recently decided to turn most of Moscow into a CCTV observed city soon, perhaps even more so than London is today, the United States - suffering from state- and nation-wide budget problems, has decided to use human eyes and ears instead of cameras. The Chicago Tribune (link below) claims that programs like this are underway in more than 100 communities nation-wide, though it gives details only about Illinois, where the program is called Waste Watch, based on the name of the local garbage-haul company known as Waste Management. Here, it is now obligatory for garbage collectors to undergo a training, in fact merely a 15-minute video and chat with the a sheriff's deputy. The waste haulers are told to how to view reality with security in mind. For example, any large container standing around untended could be a potential terrorist threat, an abandoned vehicle lingering on streets for days could be a meaningful sign that there's something wrong in the neighborhood. Now if you have such a new breed of cheap agents in the street, an article in Diatribe Media calls them the new 'G-men' , they can do more than threat detection. Garbage men, by definition, know their neighborhood and drive around at all times of day and night. So the tutorial video also shows them how to detect marijuana plants growing on someone's balcony, or to look out for people who look into other people's windows. All of this is called crime-prevention, although Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart makes it clear that the garbage haulers do not have any police power, all they may to is watch and interpret, and then report any suspicious activity by calling the regular police. Naturally, given the human condition, the Waste Watch program is being received with positive and negative connotations. The Chicago Breaking News Center lets both points of view speak at the and of it's article:

Janet Kelly, 67, of Alsip, welcomes the Waste Watch program.

"The more eyes the better," Kelly said.

But Tony Johnson, 29, who lives in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood, which is not part of the Waste Watch initiative, wonders about privacy issues.

"You need safety, but is going without privacy worth (it)?" Johnson asked.

Over at Diatrebe Media, also Chicago-based, the folks are even more critical of this new idea. Their article ends with the following words:

... before you write this off as innocuous or believe it’s in the best interest (for your safety, of course) for trash collectors to be enlisted as another set of eyes and ears of a government body, remember that the feds are also interested in what you read online, the mail coming into your home, your email, your phone calls, your activities on the street via integrated camera networks. Apparently, that’s the price of freedom.