I didn’t agree with our editorial last issue.Normally our whole staff gets together to decide on an editorial topic, and then we take an opinion and every editor has a say. Usually we end up choosing something we agree on and that makes writing the editorial easier.This time was not normal. I don’t like the idea of security cameras on campus; that’s why I have been pushing my staff to put out some kind of article on this all semester. In order to inform other people so then maybe something would happen. I assumed, rather arrogantly I might add, that most people on campus don’t want security cameras watching them. Turns out, most people don’t care that we will have security cameras on campus in the fall.Currently our campus has a tip line in place, whereupon anyone who sees a crime occurring on campus can report it to the campus security department. Furtheremore the campus security department has a plan in place to deal with a major emergency on campus such as an active shooter.In the case of an active shooter on campus our security office first calls the San Bruno Police Department. Then the completely unarmed security officers will secure the perimeter by keeping people away from the shooter and the shooter away from the people. All the while the carillon system will be warning people to stay away as they receive text messages telling them the same. I honestly don’t understand how this can stop a determined shooter on campus, but at least there’s a procedure. Security cameras aren’t going to help this situation out one bit. With the cameras, our security department is attempting to provide a deterrent to more petty crimes.”The goal is not to have someone sitting in front of a computer all day watching all of the cameras,” Jose Nunez, District Vice Chancellor of Facilities said. “It is to have a secure environment, to get rid of theft and other criminal activity.”However, I don’t think that security cameras will do this. For example the 68 cameras put up in San Francisco have contributed to only one arrest in the past two years, according to a March 21 article in the Chronicle called “Crime cameras not capturing many crimes”. The only type of crime that was affected by the cameras were homicides, which decreased around the cameras. The crimes actually moved down the block as if “people move down the block before killing each other.”Now while Skyline College is not the size of San Francisco; that study proved that having security cameras alone does not affect crime at all, even in the areas the cameras are watching. It only makes people feel just a little safer.Even without the issue of whether or not they will work, there is still the issue of privacy. More than half of our staff was indifferent to this issue when we got together for the editorial, and I don’t understand that. I don’t care if the cameras are not monitored 24/7: I don’t want to be worrying about if I’m doing something wrong all the time. It makes me feel like I’m in a prison, and I’m surprised more people don’t like this.So if the cameras aren’t for sure going to decrease crime, there is absolutely no reason they should be here. Our privacy isn’t optional, it’s a right.