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Authorities are debating whether or not video surveillance should be increased in the United States due to their importance in uncovering the suspects of the Boston Marathon bombings. Lawmakers are in talks about the importance of increasing surveillance and how CCTV (close-circuit television) cameras will be able to increase security and protect citizens as well as help authorities track down suspects. Many lawmakers believed that if there are more security cameras installed in cities, it would help speed up the process of identifying suspects and catching them before they get very far. Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York, states that they had recently increased surveillance in New York's midtown and downtown areas due to the tragic events of the Boston bombings. He says, "The Boston bombing is a terrible reminder of why we've made these investments-including camera technology that could help us deter an attack, or investgate and apprehend those involved. [The added video surveillance can] alert police to abnormalities it detects on the street, such as an abandoned package that is left on a corner." However, calls for extra video surveillance has left many privacy advocates concerned. They believe that increasing video surveillance can be a potential invasion of privacy for the general public. They also state that since the authorities were able to track down the Boston bombers within only a few days, there really isn't any need for any extra surveillance tools. A lawyer for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Alan Butler, says,

MONSTER MACHINES APR 19, 2013 11:07 PM 14,548 47 Share GET OUR TOP STORIES FOLLOW GIZMODO The Tech That Helped Take Down Marathon Bombing Suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev Casey Chan and Brian Barrett The second suspect in the brutal Boston Marathon bombings has been apprehended, after five days of uncertainty and fear. And while all credit for Dzhokar Tsarnaev's capture goes to the men and women of the many, many agencies that spent the last week tracking him down, technology played as prominent a role as it ever has in a time of national crisis. A Smartphone Immediately after the Boston Marathon bomb exploded, David Green pulled out his smartphone and snapped a shot of the aftermath, smoke and all-around chaos. He then put his phone away and started helping victims. Taking a picture of what you see in front of you-whether it be a disaster, a beautiful view, a plate of food-has become as instinctual as just plain seeing. What Green didn't know, and what the world was soon going to find out, was that Green's picture eventually became the clearest image of 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, aka Suspect #2. In the high-resolution image, you can see Tsarnaev calmly walk away from the explosion in his unmistakable white baseball cap. On top of that, the smartphone pic captured Tsarnaev without the backpack he was spotted carrying earlier on surveillance cameras. The backpack that reportedly held the bomb.