When a bad guy abducted a woman off the street in Philadelphia a few weeks ago and she was rescued when his car was located in Maryland, I marveled at the black box technology that found the vehicle.

Assemblyman Ralph Caputo, D-Essex, NJ, was even more impressed with a nearby store’s video camera that recorded the entire incident and identified the car.

So he crafted bill A-3843 permitting a municipality to enact an ordinance establishing a private outdoor video surveillance camera registry, requiring owners of such cameras to register them with police.

People who don’t do it would be subject to $100 fines.

Registration data must include the owner’s name, address, telephone number, listing of all cameras used there, description of areas viewed by the cameras, and details about how and how long images are saved.

The bill specifies registry information is available only to law enforcement agencies and is not considered a public record.

Caputo’s bill is well-intentioned but raises privacy concerns.

Although most homeowners and businesses are eager to let police view camera footage to help solve a crime, there have been instances where law enforcement had to go to court to force camera owners to let them see images.

This bill doesn’t mandate video tapes be shared with police, but when police know evidence exists, courts could issue warrants to require access.

There’ll be some sticky issues. A homeowner whose cameras are focused on his own doors and windows, for instance, may object to telling police about them because he thinks who enters his property and what goes on inside his house or yard is no one’s business.