FBI COINTELPRO? - 165 Cameras Placed in Downtown Lancaster City by Gray Administration in 2009, July 20, 2016

Small US Town First to Be Closely Watched by Private Network of Cameras
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In This Article
June 24, 2009 07:15 AM

by Haley A. Lovett
Lancaster Surveillance Group Not Regulated by

Government
The growing number of closed-circuit

cameras that monitor Lancaster, Pa.,
are run by a private group of
citizens, unlike the U.K.'s
government-run CCTV system.
Background: Government-run CCTV

surveillance in the U.K. and United States
Lancaster Surveillance Group Not Regulated by

Government
Related Topic: Google Maps, CCTV create

privacy concern
View All Technology Articles

Subscribe to Technology Updates
An attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union told

the LA Times that she thought the closed circuit camera
system in Lancaster was, such a phenomenally bad idea
that it is stunning to me. The reason? It is run by a
private nonprofit group that does not directly report to
Share any government agency.
The group, the Lancaster Community Safety Coalition, is funded by
private donations and put up its first camera in 2004. According to
the LA Times, the Coalition hires private citizens to monitor the
activity caught on camera and report any suspicious acitivity to
police. This year, the Coalition will add almost 90 more cameras to
its network.
Although proponents of the cameras point out that they have helped
with the prosecution of crimes such as murder, assault, prostitution
and public drunkenness, the crime rate in Lancaster actually rose
while the cameras were being used.
The executive director of the coalition told the LA Times that
Lancaster may be the most watched city in the United States per
capita.
In 2008 a man was hit by a car in Hartford, Conn., and then ignored by
many passersby. The incident was captured on the city's closed circuit
camera system, and the video was released in an effort to find the
assailant.
Background: Government-run CCTV surveillance in the

U.K. and United States
The U.K. is widely known as one of
Sources in this Story
COINTELPRO - Cameras in Lancaster City

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Small US Town First to Be Closely Watched by Private Network of Cameras
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the most monitored places on Earth,

with older estimates putting the
number of closed circuit cameras at
roughly 4.8 million, according to The
Guardian. According to a 2002
article from BBC News, a U.K.
citizen is caught on tape 300 times a
day.
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/technology/2009/June/Small-US...
City Limits: The Eyes Have

It: NYPD Plans More
Cameras
Los Angeles Times:

Lancaster, Pa., keeps a
close ye on itself
BBC News: CCTV: Does it
work?
The Guardian: Every step
The U.K. has been experimenting

you take: UK underground
with closed circuit television
centre that is spy capital of
the world
surveillance since the 1960s, and
uses the footage to help capture
findingDulcinea: Google
criminals in the act, look for
Street View Captures
potential terrorists, and locate
"Private" Moments, Some
Want Privacy Back
wanted or missing persons. Although
some of the cameras can zoom in
and identify a face at 75 meters, a
recent report found that 80 percent of the footage captured is of too
poor quality to use in crime fighting, according to The Guardian.
As a means of deterring crime, the BBC reported that only about half
of the cities with CCTV saw a decrease in crime, with some cities
even seeing an increase in crime during the use of CCTV. Though
according to the Home Office, the BBC reported that having footage
of a crime often results in a criminal pleading guilty, which saves the
government money in court costs.
Hundreds of cities in the United States use camera networks for
crime prevention, according to the LA Times, including Los Angeles,
New York, San Francisco and Boston. New York City is looking to
expand its network of cameras, which started by covering the
financial district of lower Manhattan. According to City Limits, the
NYPD is looking for federal funds to help purchase more cameras.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that the cameras may someday
cover the entire borough of Manhattan.
According to the LA Times, a UC Berkeley study found that the
cameras installed in San Francisco may have helped prevent property
crimes, but had little or no effect on violent crimes.
Related Topic: Google Maps, CCTV create privacy concern

Capturing images of people, even in public areas, does not come
without controversy. According to City Limits, in New York, the Civil
Liberties Union has taken legal action against the NYPD about the
inability to get information about the video surveillance.
In some U.S. cities the cameras have been rejected. Cambridge, Ma.,
decided not to use cameras it had purchased in an effort to preserve
the privacy of its citizens, the LA Times reported. Some residents of
Lancaster are threatening to move out of town if its network of
cameras continues to grow.
And a newer technology has seen similar reactions. Google Maps
Street View has been highly criticized as an invasion of privacy. This
addition to Google Maps provides eye-level views of many streets in
the United States and Europe. The images are taken from cars
driving along public streets, but they have inadvertently caught
private moments such as the interior of a house, burglar activity and
people visiting strip clubs. One couple even sued Google for invasion
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Surveillance cameras in Lancaster, Pennsylvania prompt privacy concerns...
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Lancaster is being watched - by private group Police don't operate the su...
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http://articles.philly.com/2009-07-06/news/25289691_1_surveillance-ca...
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By Joelle Farrell INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

POSTED: July 06, 2009
On a sunny afternoon at H.M. Musser Park in Lancaster City, Vilma

Caraballo pushed her grandson on a swing. Marion Young, 60, ate
tortilla chips from her bagged lunch. And Maicol Ortiz, 19, sat on a
brick wall, talking in Spanish with his 23-year-old girlfriend, Evelyn
Monzon.
Above them, the scene was monitored by cameras installed at each
corner of the park, part of an extensive, citywide surveillance system.
By the end of July, Lancaster will have 165 cameras watching
residents and visitors, making it the most highly surveilled city per
capita in the state, and possibly the nation.
A similar program planned for Wilkes-Barre might soon steal that title,
however.
Beyond the sheer number of cameras watching the city of 55,000,
Lancaster's program is unusual in that a private group, not police,
monitors the cameras. The nonprofit Lancaster Community Safety
Coalition provides its own training and is not overseen by any public
agency.
Residents in the park recently had mixed reactions. The cameras are
hidden inside black orbs hung from what look like white street lights.
Inside the orbs the cameras swivel, pan, and zoom. They are powerful
enough to make out a face or a license plate a block or more away.
"I like it," said Caraballo, 51, who has asked that a camera be placed
on her block. "I want them all over the city."
Young, who works as a secretary at the courthouse, said, "I'm not
doing anything bad. They can watch me all they want."
Some, like 19-year-old Amanda Bachman, bemoan the cameras as
another step in an increasingly regulated culture.
"What's next?" Bachman said as she walked near the park. "You can't
get away with anything anymore. You can't even smoke a cigarette in
front of a building."
The camera's footage has helped police arrest people charged with
homicide, assault, gun and drug sales, as well as lesser crimes:
Staffers have called the police to report public drinking and two adults
engaging in a "sex act" in a park, said the coalition's executive director,
Joseph R. Morales, who also serves on the City Council. In 2008, the
coalition said, it made 492 calls to police, resulting in 82 arrests and 86
Page 11 of 14
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Lancaster is being watched - by private group Police don't operate the su...
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http://articles.philly.com/2009-07-06/news/25289691_1_surveillance-ca...
citations.
Supporters say it functions as a high-tech neighborhood watch group. This isn't Big Brother watching, it's the pe
"It's a crucially important distinction because of the privacy issues that have come up," said Dennis F. Cox, who
local crime commission that recommended installing the cameras. "It's kind of a citizen effort . . . a way to have
the neighborhood."
The coalition requires its 10 employees to undergo drug tests and a criminal-records check, and supervisors ca
employees use the cameras. If an operator tries to look into a window, the image inside the building is digitally
safeguard installed to protect residents' privacy in their homes.
The Supreme Court has ruled that people aren't entitled to privacy in public places, said Stephen Henderson, a
professor at Widener Law. There are guidelines that law enforcement officials must follow, but none exist for pr
systems, Henderson said.
"You need those same safeguards built in," Henderson said, "when private actors start conducting what are no
functions."
"You have all the potential for abuse and none of the accountability and oversight," added Mary Catherine Rop
for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.
Morales said he would welcome guidance from state legislators or federal authorities on how to regulate private
city.
Lancaster might be just the start of privately run city surveillance. Mayor J. Richard Gray said other cash-strapp
approached him to ask about the program.
Wilkes-Barre, a city of 41,000, plans to install 150 cameras this year, monitored by a nonprofit called Hawkeye,
Administrator J.J. Murphy. The city's mayor chose the board members who will lead the nonprofit. The $2.3 mil
funded almost entirely by gaming revenues.
Surveillance in Wilmington is also run by a nonprofit, not police.
While Philadelphia may have fewer police cameras per capita watching its 1.4 million residents (the city curren
to install 154 more, possibly by year's end), privately operated cameras watch college campuses, banks, hotels
businesses.
"Do you think you're ever not on a camera in downtown Philly?" said Lancaster Mayor J. Richard Gray.
Lancaster's crime rate isn't unusually high for a city of its size and demographics. There have been two killings
incidents of aggravated assault, up from 81 last year at this time, said Lancaster Police Lt. Todd Umstead.
The crime commission found that residents were most concerned with noise, litter, and vandalism. It recommen
community policing and camera surveillance.
The coalition, which lists the fire chief, a former police captain, and the district attorney on its board, put up the
and Lime Streets, a known drug corner, in 2004.
The crime rate hasn't changed much, but police say they're better equipped to find perpetrators.
"Even when the camera doesn't capture an actual crime in progress, it captures movements of people prior to a
Umstead said.
David Greiner, 51, a lifelong Lancaster resident, was one of the company's first watchers and now supervises t
called in fights, robberies, and an attempted sexual assault.
Two years ago, Greiner helped catch a murderer. He called police when a fight broke out in a large group on th
2007. Shots were fired before police arrived, and a man ran to a nearby home.
Greiner directed the police to the building; the man, Abdul Walton, 22, of Philadelphia, had shaved his beard in
disguise himself. Walton was convicted of first-degree murder.
Camera footage has led other defendants to plead guilty and persuaded reluctant witnesses to step forward, D
Craig Stedman said.
For taxpayers, the benefit of having a private operator is clear: Donations pay for a third of the coalition's expec
annual budget, and covered most of the $3 million start-up costs, Morales said.
"If you don't have money for cops, you buy a damn camera and put it on the street corner," said Steve Murray,
Co., a vintage clothing and furniture store on Queen Street. "It's not Tehran or Tiananmen Square here."
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Lancaster, Pa., keeps a close eye on itself - latimes
1 of 4
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/21/nation/na-spycam-city21
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Lancaster, Pa., keeps a close eye on itself
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It may become the nation's most closely watched small city.
Some 165 closed-circuit TV cameras soon will provide live, round-the-clock scrutiny of
street, park and other public space used by the 55,000 residents and the town's many t
more outdoor cameras than are used by many major cities, including San Francisco and
FROM THE ARCHIVES

Too close at hand
December 22, 2006
Unlike anywhere else, cash-strapped Lancaster outsourced its surveillance to a private

that hires civilians to tilt, pan and zoom the cameras -- and to call police if they spot sus
No government agency is directly involved.
Perhaps most surprising, the near-saturation surveillance of a community that saw fou
year has sparked little public debate about whether the benefits for law enforcement ou
privacy.
MORE STORIES ABOUT
"Years ago, there's no way we could do this," said Keith Sadler, Lancaster's police chief.
Big Brother, George Orwell and '1984.' It's just funny how Americans have softened on
Cameras
Crime Prevention
Privacy
"No one talks about it," agreed Scott Martin, a Lancaster County commissioner who wa
program. "Because people feel safer. Those who are law-abiding citizens, they don't hav
worry about."
Surveillance
A few dozen people attended four community meetings held last spring to discuss what
"this exciting public safety initiative." But opposition has grown since big red bulbs, wh
video cameras, began appearing on corner after corner.
Page 13 of 14
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Lancaster, Pa., keeps a close eye on itself - latimes
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/21/nation/na-spycam-city21
Mary Pat Donnellon, head of Mission Research, a local software company, vowed to mo
on her block. "I don't want to live like that," she said. "I'm not afraid. And I don't need t
surveillance."
"No one has the right to know who goes in and out my front door," agreed David Mowr
company that supplies quarry pits. "That's my business. That's not what America is abo
Hundreds of municipalities -- including Los Angeles and at least 36 other California cit
expanded camera networks since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In most cases, Departme
Security grants helped cover the cost.
In the most ambitious project, New York City police announced plans several years ago
public and private security cameras across Lower Manhattan designed to help deter, tra
terrorists. The network is not yet complete.
How they affect crime is open to debate. In the largest U.S. study, researchers at UC Be
71 cameras that San Francisco put in high-crime areas starting in 2005. Their final repo
December, found "no evidence" of a drop in violent crime but "substantial declines" in
near the cameras.
Only a few communities have said no. In February, the city council in Cambridge, Mass
eight cameras already purchased with federal funds for fear police would improperly sp
Officials in nearby Brookline are considering switching off a dozen cameras for the sam
Lancaster is different, and not just because it sits amid the rolling hills and rich farms o
Dutch country.
Laid out in 1730, the whole town is 4 square miles around a central square. Amish fami
in the nation's oldest public market, and the Wal-Mart provides a hitching post to park
buggy. Tourists flock to art galleries and Colonial-era churches near a glitzy new conven
But poverty is double the state's average, and public school records list more than 900
homeless. Police blame most of last year's 3,638 felony crimes, chiefly thefts, on gangs
as a way station to move cocaine, heroin and other illegal drugs along the Eastern Seab
"It's not like we're making headlines as the worst crime-ridden city in the country," said
the county's district attorney. "We have an average amount of crime for our size."
In 2001, a local crime commission concluded that cameras might make the city safer. B
civic boosters and city officials formed the Lancaster Community Safety Coalition, and
organization installed its first camera downtown in 2004.
Raising money from private donors and foundations, the coalition had set up 70 camer
the crime rate rose.
Officials explained the increase by saying cameras caught lesser offenses, such as prosti
drunkenness, that otherwise often escape prosecution. The cameras also helped police
a murderer, and solve several other violent crimes.

2 of 4
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Small US Town First to Be Closely Watched by Private Network of Cameras

By The Advanced Media Group

Beyond the Headlines

About Us | FAQ | Contact Us

Small US Town First to Be

Home Beyond the Headlines Technology

June 24, 2009 07:15 AM

Lancaster Surveillance Group Not Regulated by

The growing number of closed-circuit

Background: Government-run CCTV

Lancaster Surveillance Group Not Regulated by

Related Topic: Google Maps, CCTV create

View All Technology Articles

An attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union told

Background: Government-run CCTV surveillance in the

Sources in this Story

COINTELPRO - Cameras in Lancaster City

July 20, 2016

Small US Town First to Be Closely Watched by Private Network of Cameras

the most monitored places on Earth,

City Limits: The Eyes Have

By The Advanced Media Group

Los Angeles Times:

The U.K. has been experimenting

Related Topic: Google Maps, CCTV create privacy concern

COINTELPRO - Cameras in Lancaster City

July 20, 2016

By The Advanced Media Group

COINTELPRO - Cameras in Lancaster City

July 20, 2016

By The Advanced Media Group

COINTELPRO - Cameras in Lancaster City

July 20, 2016

By The Advanced Media Group

COINTELPRO - Cameras in Lancaster City

July 20, 2016

By The Advanced Media Group

COINTELPRO - Cameras in Lancaster City

July 20, 2016

By The Advanced Media Group

COINTELPRO - Cameras in Lancaster City

July 20, 2016

By The Advanced Media Group

COINTELPRO - Cameras in Lancaster City

July 20, 2016

Surveillance cameras in Lancaster, Pennsylvania prompt privacy concerns...

By The Advanced Media Group

COINTELPRO - Cameras in Lancaster City

July 20, 2016

Surveillance cameras in Lancaster, Pennsylvania prompt privacy concerns...

By The Advanced Media Group

COINTELPRO - Cameras in Lancaster City

July 20, 2016

By The Advanced Media Group

| Sports | Entertainment | Business | Opinion | Food | Lifestyle

Lancaster is being watched - by

By Joelle Farrell INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

On a sunny afternoon at H.M. Musser Park in Lancaster City, Vilma

COINTELPRO - Cameras in Lancaster City

South Jersey police tout b

Kevin Riordan: 'Camden

July 20, 2016

By The Advanced Media Group

COINTELPRO - Cameras in Lancaster City