Pros And Cons Of Government Surveillance

American surveillance has become a very controversial topic in the past decade. Some Americans feel we have too much government surveillance on citizens. While others argue that it is for the safety of the general public. Sadly, from the research that I have done and polls I have seen, most Americans would not think government surveillance has had positive impact on America. Government surveillance has aided in the catching of criminals, but not in stopping crimes before they happen.

From a CBS News poll, done in June, six in ten Americans say “…they disapproved of federal government’s collecting phone records of ordinary Americans in order to reduce terrorism.” ‘Is government surveillance of citizens justified?’ was asked on Debate.org, forty percent said yes, the other sixty percent said no. Another question on the same site was “Is it justifiable to violate certain civil liberties in the name of national security?” thirty percent said yes to this question, sixty seven percent said no. What most Americans do not know is exactly what the government is monitoring and how much surveillance they have on its citizens. The United

Many cases, such as murders and home invasions, go unsolved each year. I think with all the technology in the world, that should be a thing of the past. It makes me think that the Patriot Act is not doing all that it was intended to do. Not to totally discredit the act because it has helped catch criminals that would not have been caught without its passing, but it has not stopped major crimes before they happen. I have not noticed a significant number in the crime rate go down the past years although government surveillance has gone up. I also do not know of anyone who feels safer walking the streets with all this extra surveillance because no one notices how exactly it has stopped national threats before they have