We're not sure why it is that Honolulu needs surveillance cameras and microphones on TheBus.

So far, it feels like an expensive solution in search of a problem.

Have city buses recently become carriers of crime, harassment and general mayhem? Sure, annoyances abound, but from our occasional travels there doesn't appear to be an increase in bad behavior. We aren't aware of any recent incidents in which passengers or drivers have been threatened. In fact, the worst news to come out of TheBus lately is that the use of counterfeit passes is rampant.

So we're not sure why it is that Honolulu needs surveillance cameras and microphones on TheBus.

The fact that the drivers' union hates the idea makes us warm to it a bit. The union's president is fine with the cameras as long as they're not pointed at the drivers; he calls it "unreasonable working conditions."

Well, that's a bit of a stretch, since darn near every job is under some kind of surveillance these days, whether it's in the form of monitored phone calls, keystrokes on the computer, GPS tracking and yes, microphones and cameras. Like they tell everyone who works on a computer, assume someone is reading all of your e-mail, so is it unreasonable to expect that bus drivers should always assume someone is watching? After all, it's a bus.

But again, has there been an issue with bad drivers? Here and there we hear about a disciplinary case; a privately gathered video was used to suspend a driver in 2008 when he was caught playing a hand-held electronic game. But is this an epidemic?

So we're not sure why it is that Honolulu needs surveillance cameras and microphones on TheBus.

We live in a paranoid age with heavy-handed security and surveillance measures that would make George Orwell wince. Most of us have gotten used to being observed and, as in the recent case of the bombing attempt in Times Square, see the benefit to surveillance of public places.

Administrators of TheBus have been mum on the camera project but we hear some of the money to pay for it may be available from the Department of Homeland Security. It's a stretch to imagine a terrorist picking Honolulu as a target, and then taking the No. 43 bus from Waipahu, but we'd be happier about the whole camera thing if someone else was paying for it. If it's city money, we'd rather see it spent on some added buses during rush hour.

But even if this is some federal pork, we'd still have to say we're not sure why it is that Honolulu needs surveillance cameras and microphones on TheBus.