The past few decades have seen a proliferation of video surveillance systems in major centres in a number of Western countries. Is this development in the public interest, or does it signal a move toward more intrusive forms of policing?

This book provides much-needed data for this debate as it explores how and why some Canadian cities introduced street surveillance programs between 1981 and 2005, and it brings to light the governance structures and privacy protection policy frameworks that made these programs possible. Although surveillance initiatives sprang from a dream to establish a crime-prevention system of discipline and social control, that dream soon gave way to rationalizations based on the idea that streetscape video surveillance is a crime-solving tool that makes people feel safer. Panoptic Dreams not only identifies good practice in planning, design, and implementation, it will foster informed debate about the ethics and utility of streetscape video surveillance in Western democracies.