Surveillance cameras watch us at banks. Their stealthy eyes record us in stores. But could the cameras be coming to a neighborhood near you?

Yes - at least in Dallas' Richland Park Estates subdivision.

Fed up with crime in the Lake Highlands neighborhood, residents voted this week to install video cameras on streets and in alleyways. Residents will monitor video feeds and provide footage to police when crimes are committed.

The neighborhood joins a growing list of entities employing surveillance cameras to battle crime. Dallas police used cameras in Deep Ellum last year and are considering installing them at several South Dallas intersections.

The city just received an $800,000 grant to place them downtown.

Frank Rathbun, spokesman for the national Community Associations Institute, isn't aware of any community association doing camera surveillance, but he suspects the practice will become fairly common.

"Americans as a rule are getting more crime-conscious and doing whatever they can - legally - to protect their streets and neighborhoods," he said.

Experts say surveillance cameras are the future of passive security. Richland Park Estates' move, however, raises questions about privacy, potential misuse and effectiveness.

Dick Becker, president of the Richland Park Estates Homeowners Association, said that crime is out of control throughout northeast Dallas and that police resources are stretched thin. So members began asking: "How do we help ourselves?" he said.

Deputy Chief Jan Easterling, who oversees the Dallas Police Department's northeast substation, said the cameras could deter crime and provide useful evidence to investigators. Chief Easterling said criminals are more likely to go where cameras aren't used.

"Any type of extra eyes and ears out there are always a benefit for the Police Department," she said.

The cameras, however, highlight the tension between serving the public good and protecting people's rights and privacy.

Scott Henson, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas' police accountability project, said there's a risk of profiling and misuse. What would happen, he asked, if the video captured an extramarital affair or similar activity?

"It strikes me as important that volunteers don't have the same duty to keep that information to themselves as the cops would," he said. "You're letting your neighbors into one another's business at a level that's really unprecedented."