LEAKED images apparently from Safe City camera feeds went viral on social media last week, sparking concern about whether we are in fact being kept ‘safe’ under such projects.

Both Islamabad and Lahore’s police authorities gave statements to the media absolving their respective departments of any responsibility — some even denied that they were from Safe City cameras, a claim that is difficult to square given the angle from which the footage was taken.

Hence there is an urgent need for an impartial investigation to uncover the source of the images and to determine how ostensibly strict SOPs were somehow circumvented.

Besides, one senior police official, speaking to this paper on condition of anonymity, did admit to a similar breach in 2016, and stated that other authorities also had access to monitor and control the capital’s Safe City feeds. The public’s trust in those appointed to protect them is essential to the effective discharge of law-enforcement duties. That trust is liable to erosion without accountability and transparency.

The controversy also touches on an issue that has hitherto been neglected in mainstream discourse: balancing contrasting notions of security and liberty, and how the latter has been almost entirely overshadowed by a security-centric policy framework.

The need for ensuring public order and security is undisputed, thus justifying the forfeiture of some individual freedom in service of the ‘greater good’. However, the notion of personal security — integral to which is the right to privacy — not just for its intrinsic value but also as a countervailing force against the potential for state overreach and abuse is still rarely acknowledged in policymaking circles.

Yet, there is no escaping the fact that, increasingly, every aspect of our lives are being tracked and documented through ever-sophisticated technologies. Thus, we can also no longer deny how vulnerable we as citizens are to be living in a country without a data protection law outlining strict parameters and safeguards to ensure that neither private nor public bodies mishandle our personal information.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2019