A tentative plan for more public surveillance cameras does not have universal support in State College.
Michael Roeckel, a borough Planning Commission member, on Wednesday called the overall idea ‘too Big Brother-ish for me.’
‘I think it makes sense to upgrade the (existing) cameras if you need to — but 14 new cameras? I don’t know. That’s over the top,’ Roeckel said Wednesday.
His remarks came during a midday meeting of the Planning Commission, which serves the Borough Council in an advisory capacity. Commission members were reviewing the borough’s tentative capital-improvement priorities, including a proposal to add seven to 12 new outdoor, borough-operated surveillance cameras in town.
No other planning commissioners spoke up about the camera proposal. But Roeckel was forceful.
‘I really think that if the citizens of the town are paying attention, you’re going to get a lot of pushback on that’ idea, he said, addressing borough Planning Director Carl Hess. ‘I really think people are offended that there are so many cameras around in places where I think you have a reasonable expectation of privacy.’
State College leaders in 2003 moved to install several borough-operated cameras in the downtown. Right now, two are in place in the ‘Beaver Canyon’ area between South Pugh and South Garner streets; another is located at the East Calder Way-McAllister Alley intersection.
The Beaver Canyon cameras were most recently in the news this week, when police used them to help monitor a spontaneous crowd that gathered after al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed.
Under the plan advanced by the borough administration, the number of outdoor cameras could grow from the current three to 10 or 15. The plan’s goal is to ‘improve safety and reduce illegal activity,’ borough Assistant Manager Roger Dunlap has noted.
In an e-mail message, he wrote that the additional cameras would be meant to deter crime and help identify and hold accountable any perpetrators.
‘Public cameras may also help in a financial aspect by delaying the need to increase personnel resources,’ Dunlap wrote. ‘The technology will also help personnel complete investigations quicker, and they should also lead to better prosecutions since the crime will be captured on video.’
The borough has not decided where the new cameras would be located; that hinges on whether the Borough Council will support the expense of the added equipment.
If the plan does move forward, council member Theresa Lafer has said, she would like some of the new cameras to appear on residential streets, not solely in the downtown.
The plan also includes the replacement of eight surveillance cameras in the State College Municipal Building, 243 S. Allen St., and the addition of more than two dozen new cameras in and around borough facilities — including parking garages.
All told, the initiative would cost State College a projected $230,000 in 2012 and $245,000 more in 2013, according to borough data.
No residents spoke during a public hearing on the subject that was held Monday night. The council has yet to vote on the capital-improvement priorities.
Earlier coverage
