Citizens to discuss use of surveillance cameras

The city of Athens plans to gather public input on the recent installation of four surveillance cameras along Court Street by the Athens Police Department following a suggestion by city Law Director Pat Lang.

At the City Council meeting Monday night, Lang said he has had personal feelings about this issue going back to his days as a student at Ohio University when he studied public surveillance.

Both the First and Fourth amendments to the U.S. Constitution set a high bar for this sort of government action, he said.

"In the case of the First Amendment, if government is going to regulate speech, and in the case of the Fourth Amendment, if government is going to look into the affairs of the people, the government must have a very good reason for doing that," Lang said. "I know that there are intelligent and thoughtful people out there who have strong feelings about this issue of government surveillance in the public square."

Given that fact, no matter how well intentioned the surveillance may be, Lang said, this is an issue that deserves public debate.

"Putting my law director hat back on, I will say that these cameras clearly are legal, and I think it's quite clear that [Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl] has acted with the very best of intentions," Lang said. "I think this is also clearly an area of city policy. And, as such, is clearly under City Council's jurisdiction to address."

At-large member Elahu Gosney agreed with Lang that City Council should hold a public hearing on the subject.

"I want to be clear that City Council has not made any decisions to sanction the cameras," Gosney added.

At-large member Jim Sands confirmed that council had not discussed the matter of the new cameras.

Members appeared to agree to add the issue to their agenda for a committee of the whole meeting next week.

Mayor Wiehl said that while the cameras in the uptown parking garage had been discussed by City Council previously, these new cameras had not.

"It essentially augments our police force, from my point of view," Wiehl said. "It doesn't do much more than that, other than just more eyes to see things."

He said he sees the cameras as an extension of the ability of the APD to do its job.

"I don't see it as a big issue," Wiehl said. "I know some people are concerned about it."

Athens Police Capt. Tom Pyle confirmed that there are four cameras total along Court Street, with three of them new. They have been placed at each of the intersections along Court starting at Union Street, then at Washington, then at State, and finally at Carpenter. The camera at Washington and Court has been in place for over a year. Pyle said that no other new surveillance cameras are operating in the city.

Pyle explained that the cameras will be used for a variety of purposes.

"They were used heavily during the Halloween weekend to monitor the crowd," he said. "They can be used for various other things. In the case of a fight or assault, we might be able to find evidence "“ get a recording of an incident and use that as evidence."

Had the camera been pointed in the right direction the morning that the Coldstone Creamery was robbed on Court Street, the police might have had some video footage of the suspect going into the business, Pyle said.

"The only limitations are whether or not they are functioning at the time and whether or not they are pointed in the right direction," he said.

He said that the cameras were donated by local developer and businessman Les Cornwell and estimated their cost as around $1,300 each. The wiring was purchased with about $1,000 in grant money, and the department spent roughly $800 of special fund money for unique parts for the installation, he said, which was done in-house. The cameras were put up the week before Halloween.

Cornwell explained Tuesday how the donation of the cameras came about. As co-owner of Palmer Place Apartments, Cornwell said that vandalism was occurring on the complex's grounds nearly every weekend, especially to the expensive yard lights.

"We ended up with something like a 35-camera system," Cornwell said of what was installed at Palmer Place. He confirmed that the Athens Police are hooked into the Palmer Place video system to aid in monitoring the camera feed.

When APD helped Palmer Place, the department indicated that they needed three cameras themselves, Cornwell added.

"I wasn't sure where they planned to install them," Cornwell said, "but I went ahead and bought three extra because of the help that they had given us, and donated them to them."

Cornwell said that the cameras set up around Palmer Place have eliminated much of the destruction to the property so far this year.

Local civil-liberties activist Eliot Kalman said that these days, when one is outside, there is no reasonable expectation of visual privacy.

"When supermarkets have cameras in every aisle and in every quadrant of their parking lots, when Google Earth offers an unfettered look at everyone's back yard, when your neighbor may train a camera on your residence with neither your knowledge nor permission, when the same can be accomplished from any parked or passing vehicle, private or governmental, or even by any passer-by, why not allow for police cameras uptown, or down?" Kalman asked. "The real danger is not from the announced cameras, government, corporate, private, but those the public does not know about, and who does what with the so acquired information."