Had the terror suspects in London's Tube bombings chosen instead to wreak havoc in the US, it might have been weeks before the world knew what they looked like.
That is because the all-seeing network of 24-hour-a-day security cameras which blankets Britain, and which allowed police to quickly beam pictures of the suspects across the globe, simply doesn't exist in the US.
Though the London attacks have prompted calls for a similar kind of system, any bid to expand the fledgling US network of surveillance cameras could fall afoul of freedom and privacy guarantees in the US Constitution.
"The ethos we have in this country is that government leaves you alone unless it has good reason to suspect you of wrongdoing," said Jay Stanley of the American Civil Liberties Union. "Videotaping everything you do when you leave your apartment or house doesn't really qualify as leaving you alone."
Since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, some US jurisdictions have improved their rudimentary closed-circuit TV (CCTV) systems, branded by opponents as "spy" cameras.
"They are pretty scarce, as far as law enforcement CCTV is concerned. There are, of course, a lot of private CCTV networks," said Cedric Laurant, a policy analyst with the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).
Chicago has around 1,200 cameras, there are more than 200 in Baltimore and there are 20 to 25 police cameras in Washington, as well as a network in Metro subway stations, trains and buses, according to EPIC.
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