Maybe we'll finally find out if it's really true they rub noses.

Now the residents of this far-flung village have become, in one sense, among the most watched people in the land, with — as former Mayor Freeman Roberts puts it — “one camera for every 30 residents.”

It's Dillingham, Alaska, a town of 2,400 people and, soon, 80 surveillance cameras.

“You better smile. You're on camera,” says Roberts, 64, a barge captain. Roberts himself isn't smiling as he points out a single camera on the side of a building. The camera is aimed toward an alley.

A fishing town on Nushagak Bay, Dillingham is ice-bound half the year. “I don't think we have to worry about Osama bin Laden,” Roberts says. But Police Chief Richard Thompson disagrees, insists terrorists could “backdoor it,” next thing you know, “phoooom.” And anyway it's only 800 miles from Russia, Dillingham is, Thompson points out. And only 1,200 miles from Seattle. So just do the math.

Meanwhile high school wrestling coach Johnny Johnson takes the American way out: “If you're not doing anything wrong, what does it matter?”

Turn your head a little to the right, Johnny. I think we're getting your bad side here.