Police love surveillance cameras, but not the cost. Setting up a high-definition system at a single site can cost thousands of dollars. So officials came up with a workaround in Richmond Heights, Ohio, east of Cleveland.
The city will soon make all banks, restaurants, hotels, and retail outlets within its jurisdiction install and maintain surveillance systems at the businesses’ own expense. A previous ordinance, passed in December 2021, does the same thing at apartment complexes.
Cameras must be government-approved and cover every entrance and parking lot 24/7. Property owners must also store the digital files for 30 days at their own expense. If anything breaks, they must pay for repairs or risk $500 daily fines. The city makes no exceptions for vandalism, power outages, or technical glitches.
The city even has a workaround to the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which controls…
