Universities across Michigan and around the country are spending millions upgrading surveillance systems they say are needed to prevent and solve crimes and hasten emergency responses on campus.
Civil libertarians say the systems do little to prevent crime and can be used to invade privacy and chill free speech on campus in an age of protest.
The presence and the absence of security cameras came into sharp focus in 2023 when a gunman killed three people and wounded five others at Michigan State University. While thousands of people on campus hurried to shelter in place, police were scanning through hundreds of security camera feeds in search of the gunman. It took three hours to find an image to release to the public, but it took just 17 minutes for someone to call 911 to report his location once it was out…