Physical surveillance outdates the police force and is highly labor intensive. Informers and infiltrators remain a prime source of intelligence for most police forces. Surveillance technology has improved greatly with the addition of electronic surveillance, and this technology can make significant contributions to the efficiency of police services if properly used in the light of accountability. The author discusses the idea of privacy versus surveillance as well as a common use of surveillance in traffic cases, such as traffic video detectors and permanently installed cameras. The problem of the labor involved in manning such systems is presented as well as the idea of electronic surveillance acting as prevention instead of only as providing arresting evidence. The various benefits in fighting crime using electronic surveillance are discussed along with the problem of access control to records that have been obtained by the surveillance.