Council approves security cameras

The College Park city council voted last night to install 15 security cameras throughout downtown, despite privacy and financial concerns from some council members and residents.

In a 6-2 vote, the council decided to award a security camera contract to Avrio Group Surveillance Solutions, LLC — one of the largest surveillance companies in the area. Last year, the city received a $500,000 grant toward installing surveillance cameras around town, most of which are expected to be concentrated on Knox Road, Calvert Road and College Avenue.

The city had originally applied for up to $3 million in grants to install cameras city-wide. But they were only awarded one-sixth of that amount, and decided to only put the cameras downtown, where most of the city's crime occurs. But the lack of funding for cameras in the rest of the city upset some residents, who said the entire city could benefit from increased security.

In addition to the cameras, four license plate scanners will be installed downtown, and all of them will be connected to the university's surveillance operation center and to university police databases.

The university agreed to monitor the city cameras in addition to the 280 on-campus cameras for no extra cost to the city, and will pay $90,000 in annual costs for the camera monitoring.

While cameras could be installed elsewhere in the city in the future, the cameras needed be close to the campus for university staffers to monitor them.

Some residents had concerns about privacy and logistical issues. Former District 4 Councilwoman Mary Cook expressed concern with the locations of the cameras and the lack of privacy.

"We do not want to open a door that we are not able to close later," she said.

Cook added that while the cameras may deter crime, she wished the entire city could benefit from the grant, not just downtown College Park.

One of the council members who replaced Cook, Marcus Afzali, had similar concerns, before ultimately deciding to vote for the bill.

"My favorite book is 1984 and I'm afraid of Big Brother watching," he said in reference to the George Orwell novel where every citizen is monitored closely by closed-circuit cameras. "But [downtown] is probably the most crime-ridden area of our city. I fully support this."

District 1 Councilman Christine Nagel and District 2 Councilman Jack Perry were the two votes against the measure. Perry, a staunch fiscal conservative, was concerned about the on-going cost of maintaining and updating the cameras in the years to come. 

Bob Ryan, the city's director of public services, said the privacy concerns were overblown because the cameras don't look inside residences and all the video is deleted after two weeks.

Criminology and criminal justice professor Charles Wellford heads a Gemstone team that has been studying crime patterns in the area and has identified hotspots to be very near to where the proposed positions are.

Wellford also said a survey of residents and students resulted in a majority saying they supported the implementation of the cameras despite privacy issues. 

"We're really happy that it's been approved finally," said junior economics and geography major Vivey Chen, who is a member of the Gemstone team. "I hope it will help solve crime and improve perceptions. Once it's implemented, we hope to analyze the data and conduct another survey."

The cameras' installation will start early next month and end in late June.

The council also voted unanimously to begin looking into installing speed monitoring cameras near the university and the town's five elementary schools. The speed cameras would be used to issue tickets to cars that exceed 12 miles more than the speed limit, as per state law.

Student liaison Jonathan Sachs agreed the matter should be looked into but was initially skeptical of the cameras and suggested they be implemented during the academic semester so as not to take students by surprise.

But Perry — who made the motion — admitted he'd been caught by such cameras before simply saying: "They work."

rhodes@umdbk.com