Secondly, the cost is so high that if you are a middle-class neighborhood you can't really afford it unless you pool so many houses that the rent-a-cop has to watch a very large area, which reduces his effectiveness. Finally, it is my feeling that community problems should be addressed by some kind of community action rather than by writing out checks. kadrey asks: Is the GNW idea original with you, or did you pick it up somewhere and decide to run with it?

When I present an idea I did not make up, I give credit where credit is due. It frquently happens that different people independently come up with similar ideas, and so I consider it quite likely that others have come up with ideas similar to this one, thought I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else. In fact

I have heard from several people who were thinking along the same lines before my article came out. alguy asks: So the surveillance would be by "siblings" and not by organizations, such as government? [BTW, loved Zodiac)

Correct. If you go to the UK you see government-controlled surveillance cameras all over the place. I don't like that. I'd feel much more comfortable with cameras that could only be monitored by people I knew. kadrey says: I didn't mean to imply that the idea wasn't original with you, simply that once you see it in writing, it seems so simple and obvious a notion that it's shocking you haven't seen it before. Which is probably a description of most successful inventions/ideas.

I'm looking at questions.... kadrey says: How long have you been working on the idea now?

I started thinking about it on Memorial Day weekend when my neighbor was assaulted. I've been investigating different technologies since then. kadrey asks Have any promising technologies or collaborators in other countries turned up since then?