From the archives: Security camera use catching on

This story was originally published in Newsday on March 4, 2005

They peep down at shoppers in downtown Bellport. They train their gaze on people going in and out of Freeport's Village Hall. And they stand sentry on Montauk Highway in Mastic and in Shirley, keeping an electronic eye out for vandals.

The use of security cameras to monitor private property is nothing new. And it's not uncommon to find security cameras in and around public buildings - they already watch over the Nassau County Administrative building in Mineola and keep track of comings and goings inside Southampton's Town Hall, where they were installed after a bomb scare about two years ago. But as more local governments and police departments look to expand their use of security cameras, Long Islanders may increasingly find themselves under surveillance in places they didn't expect to be watched, such as public streets, parks and transit hubs.

The most ambitious push may be in the village of Hempstead, where Police Chief James Russo said about 50 security cameras should be up and running by summer. Footage from the cameras will be relayed to live-time monitors at the Hempstead Village Police Station, where it can be spot-checked during a call to police or reviewed in detail after a crime has been committed, Russo said.

Some cameras are slated for the village's public parks, where signs will advise potential troublemakers that the area is under video surveillance. "We're also planning on putting them on our public buildings, at the bus terminal, the railroad station," Russo said.

A number of cameras will in a sense stand in for police officers in what Russo calls crime "hotspots" - streetcorners or other places where police frequently receive complaints about crimes such as drug-dealing but cannot patrol 24 hours a day.

County and state parks police already use cameras as an investigative tool to solve specific crimes such as graffiti vandalism, or repeat break-ins at a business or parking lot. But in most cases - unlike the Hempstead surveillance plan - once an investigation is completed, the cameras come down, said Det. Lt. Kevin Smith, a Nassau County Police Department spokesman.

That's how Riverhead police envision using the cameras they want to buy with a $13,456 federal justice assistance grant. "It's not like a camera watching traffic," said David Hegermiller, Riverhead police chief. He added that the cameras will be difficult to see and will be moved from place to place.

Municipalities seem to be leading the push for more permanent surveillance of activity in public areas.

The village of Bellport put four cameras downtown in 2000 after vandals overturned flowerpots there one Halloween; more were installed the following year at a local intersection and at the marina and near the library. The point of the cameras was to prevent and keep tabs on "minor mischief kinds of things," Bellport Mayor Frank C. Trotta said. Still, he said, "I think it helps to deter crime and it helps us with regard to if a situation arises."

Staff writers Mitchell Freedman and Indrani Sen contributed to this story.