You are being watched all of the time, whether you notice or not. From supermarket monitors to your own phone, your every move is tracked and recorded. But these are all normal aspects of our daily lives — we’re so used to being watched that we’ve stopped thinking about it.
Modern surveillance is pervasive. The amount of your personal information that is easily available on your devices is extensive. Face ID maps intricate facial features to unlock your phone and access payment methods. Touch ID records your fingerprint to replace your password, and your internet activity is constantly tracked.
Your searches are recorded and used to promote products and services to you through an algorithm. Cameras can be set up in any location without public disclosure. Police officers patrol campus, lurking in corners from parking lots to alleyways. In this day and age, we cannot escape Big Brother’s watchful eye.
We are even surveilled in what we think is the privacy of our own homes.
“This is not a conspiracy theory: Many of the devices living in your home are quietly collecting towering heaps of information about you,” wrote Rachel Cericola, Jon Chase and Lee Neikirk for The New York Times. ‘Your TV, your doorbell, your security system, your thermostat, even your earbuds — all of them are involved.”
Constant surveillance can have negative effects on the human psyche. A study conducted by The Conversation on the effects of constant surveillance on an individual found that people “hyper-aware” of how much they are watched can “feel intensely scrutinised, leading to heightened anxiety and paranoia.” Their findings suggest that “pervasive monitoring could exacerbate these tendencies.”
In contrast to the obvious negative effects, surveillance can have seemingly positive effects on our subconscious as well. An Oxford academic study took a different view of surveillance — “when people are conspicuously monitored via CCTV, they become aware of face stimuli much faster than when they are not monitored,” meaning that they respond faster and more actively to other people’s facial cues, such as where they are looking. This sounds like a positive aspect, but in reality, it is not. While we cannot say that over-surveillance is the sole cause of mental health issues, it is notable that hyper-awareness of gaze is also observed as a common trait of some mental health conditions, including social anxiety disorder and psychosis.
On my walks to class, I typically notice three to four different police vehicles or officers. Although I am innocent, merely walking to sociology, I can’t help but feel my heart rate spike. For students with a history of negative law enforcement experiences, this anxiety must be immense.
Police are expected to arrive when called, yet it seems like the police on campus are waiting for an issue to appear. Binghamton University makes police services extremely accessible to students in need, with a blue light system on campus and several easy links and numbers. The University also provides extensive mental health services and support for nonpolice-related situations.
So what’s the purpose of having several officers patrolling campus at all times?
The NIH collected data from studies on the correlation between police exposure and mental health issues. They found that if individuals feel recurrent police exposure to be stressful, their body’s natural response to stress will become dysregulated, resulting in cortisol being released into the body over a longer period. Over time, this can cause long-term strain to the body.
Our campus and state police forces have become an integral part of our day-to-day operations, although hours of digging and research didn’t turn up a clear reason as to why. Some sources point to international tensions as the explanation, yet officers were constantly present prior to 2025.
I am not anticop — I am against the current justice system, which involves the state of our police force. Our current system is based on fear, creating paranoia, anxiety and stress. I am alarmed at my own aversion to questioning the state of surveillance. We should keep questioning why there are so many cops around, waiting to pounce.
Campus is not only a school. For many students, it’s also their home. The constant presence of police for little to no visible reason is stressful and alarming for students and teachers alike. This stress is felt more now than ever before, with the fear of ICE appearing on or near campus — as it has for parts of Broome County — threatening the livelihoods of students who may be undocumented or otherwise vulnerable to immigration enforcement.
Surveillance is inevitable and unavoidable, but the police observing me going to the dining hall might be unnecessary.
Deirdre Pryal is a sophomore majoring in sociology
Views expressed in the opinions pages represent the opinions of the columnists. The only piece that represents the view of the Pipe Dream Editorial Board is the Staff Editorial.