City police seek surveillance cameras

The city’s proposed fiscal year 2009 budget includes $220,000 for police to purchase portable and fixed surveillance cameras aimed at bolstering the city’s crime prevention efforts.

They could be installed in Olde Towne within the year, said Lt. Rich Elliott of the Gaithersburg Police Department, who is overseeing the plans. Market Square in Kentlands, which has experienced a number of nuisance crimes, is among other future sites under consideration, he said.

‘‘We’re going to have more public input before we move forward with any kind of purchase,” said Gaithersburg Police Chief John King.

The cameras would be in public areas, where it is legal to have them, King said. ‘‘We just want to make sure that we get enough community input and that the community is comfortable enough with it. That’s important when you consider the ‘Big Brother’ issue,” he said, referring to the George Orwell novel ‘‘1984.”

King introduced the idea of cameras to Mayor Sidney A. Katz and the City Council in September. The council has set aside funds but wants more public discussion, King said. The Olde Towne Business Watch Group, an appointed group of Olde Towne advocates, also supports the camera plan, he said.

‘‘I’m all for it,” said Alex Zeppos, who owns Growler’s of Gaithersburg, a restaurant and brew pub at Summit and East Diamond avenues. ‘‘There’s a serious problem here in Gaithersburg,” he said in regards to crime.

‘‘As a speed deterrent, it seems like a good idea,” said Jim Clifford, a lawyer in Olde Towne. ‘‘To use it for purposes of citizen surveillance, I really need to know more about it,” he said, citing privacy concerns.

Cameras would roll constantly and civilian staff would monitor live video via large-screen televisions at the police station, which plans to extend its current 9 a.m. to 5. p.m. hours to around-the-clock, Elliott said.

The monitors would be equipped with an alert system that would be triggered if cameras picked up certain target behaviors, such as a person running or a group standing too long in one place, he said.

Cameras would be posted in groups of threes — two fixed in opposite directions and a third manually manipulated from the station with a joystick.

‘‘Right now, we’re only looking at commercial areas,” but eventually, a portable camera could be used to monitor a residential area experiencing significant crime, Elliott said. Police will begin testing cameras outside City Hall and the police station in September.

Once a shocking notion, surveillance cameras are appearing closer to home.

Washington, D.C. and Baltimore’s Inner City Harbor have police-monitored cameras and Rockville City Police are now testing cameras at Rockville Town Center and a pedestrian bridge from Lincoln Park to Route 355. Silver Spring Urban District has cameras paid for by commercial property owners. U.S. cities like Chicago and New York have more than 1,000 cameras paid for by federal homeland security funds.

Gaithersburg may not be as large, but could be as ‘‘progressive,” King said.

Police cars get cameras, too

City police cars became more progressive in March when in-car video cameras were installed.

‘‘Now we’ve got them in every marked police car and in my car,” King said.

Maryland State Police have had in-car cameras since at least 2002, according to International Chiefs of Police Association data. Montgomery County Police have been due to get them since 1999, but has faced years of delay in negotiation with the police union. The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 35 cites concerns of privacy and potential for misuse.

An arbitrator ruled May 8 that the county can proceed with installation. Cameras will have to be purchased.

Cameras in county police cars will likely be phased in over time, said Lt. Paul Starks, county police spokesman. No money to buy cameras has been allocated in the department’s fiscal year 2009 budget.

Cameras alone for 750 patrol cars could cost $3.75 million, Starks said.

‘‘I would rather have [them],” said Gaithersburg Police Officer John Breck, a patrol officer who works with the county collision reconstruction team and sometimes visits ‘‘six to eight wrecks a day.”

He believes the cameras have more benefit. ‘‘About 97 percent of the time it’s going to exonerate the officer than it’s going to put him in a trick bag,” he said.

The cameras in Gaithersburg’s cars constantly roll but record video only when an officer selects to or a trigger occurs, said Breck, who installed the department’s cameras.

If an officer turns on overhead lights, sounds the siren, reaches a certain speed or is involved in a collision, the camera begins recording. Routine traffic stops or other incidents can be manually saved. Most data will stay on a city server for 90 to 120 days; ‘‘critical” evidence could be kept forever, Elliott said.