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45 °F 5 Day Forecast Sunday, November 30, 2003 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | eSouthernOregon | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend November 3, 2002 Central Point police officer Shawn Vollrath shows how he can operate the surveillance camera from his patrol car. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Central Point police will be able to watch the downtown with their new eye in the sky By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune Central Point police have installed a surveillance camera to keep an eye on the business district. In mid-October, the department put a camera on the Grange Co-op grain elevator to test a surveillance system that Chief of Police Mike Sweeny claims could increase the effectiveness of his small-town department. "This technology project can effectively multiply the work force," he said, stressing that the project is still experimental. The experiments started with little public fanfare, but some people who know about the surveillance system worry that citizens’ privacy could be compromised. "I believe it’s good up to a point, but it’s an invasion of privacy," said Steve, a Bi-Mor employee who declined to give his last name. Bi-Mor is one of the businesses that will be under the watchful eye of the camera. The camera is linked to a high-speed wireless network the department has developed over the past several years. It transmits video to laptop computers in patrol cars or to desktop computers at the police station in City Hall. Police officers can tap into the network from their computers and direct the camera’s focus. The camera can pan for a 360-degree panorama, tilt up and down, and zoom in from a wide-angle view to an up-close look. Several locations around town — the busy intersection of Highway 99 and Pine Street, the 7-Eleven convenience store, the Bi-Mor gas station and grocery store, and numerous banks — are preprogrammed into the camera, so officers can focus the camera on them with a single click. "Once all the bugs are worked out, it will be a really neat tool," said officer Shawn Vollrath. "If I’m patrolling on the other side of town and there is an accident at Pine and 99, I can use the camera to determine how I need to respond. I can call another unit to control traffic or ambulance or fire based on what I see before I get there." Last month’s test period uncovered potential problems with the camera location and the system’s software, said Arlen Hatlestad, president of PC-iNet Inc., the Medford company that designed and installed the system. The camera initially was installed on a stanchion at the Grange Co-op elevator. A motor at the elevator vibrated the support, so the camera had difficulty focusing. A stable location outside a window near the top of the elevator should avoid the vibrations. Software problems caused the camera to shut down when it wasn’t in use. Then when officers tried to use the system, they couldn’t reactivate the camera, Hatlestad said. A programming change should keep the camera active on the police department’s secure network, even when officers aren’t looking at the video. Once the system is working consistently, Sweeny plans to start a campaign to educate the public about it. "I don’t believe in hyping what we don’t have," Sweeny said. "When it’s working consistently, we can show the benefits." He acknowledges potential concerns about the intrusiveness of surveillance. "We are sensitive to civil liberties and personal privacy," Sweeny said. He said the camera will focus on public areas and won’t look into people’s personal space. "We’ll just look at geographical space and observe before we get there," Sweeny said. "What we’re talking about is much less intrusive than even the camera in the 7-Eleven. "Surveillance is a fact of life. There are cameras at gas stations, convenience stores, most ATMs and at large retail stores and their parking lots," he said. Sweeny also promised that his department will develop policies and guidelines to protect privacy and prevent the misuse of the surveillance system. On the street, some people who know about the surveillance have questions. A Mi-Mor employee named Steve, who asked that his last name not be used said he thinks police should have told residents they were looking into surveillance systems before a camera was installed. "Not a lot of people know about it. I’ve been telling everybody I know and people just say ‘no way,’ but it’s up there," he said. Still, Steve thinks the camera could prove helpful. He said the store has reported traffic problems, drunken drivers and drug dealing in its parking lot and workers have waited up to 15 minutes for an officer to arrive. The camera’s ability to provide a quick view for an officer far from the scene is its chief benefit, Sweeny said. "It will be used in a manner that increases our activity and gives us the ability to monitor more than one area with one officer," he said. Sweeny wants to place another camera with pan, tilt and zoom functions on a lightpost near Interstate 5 to monitor the other side of town. A camera there could watch traffic, additional banks, the Albertsons Shopping Center and Jewett Elementary School, Hatlestad said. Sweeny said police want permission from the Oregon Department of Transportation to put the camera on the state’s lightpost. Sweeny is considering eventually adding cameras at parks and schools. Those would be fixed-focus cameras that provide a wide view of a public space — such as a playground or picnic area — and couldn’t be directed like the current camera can be. "It’s for safety and to prevent vandalism," he said of the proposed additions. "First we want to make sure we have a viable system. "We haven’t reached the point to decide if we will go into the school areas, but we would meet with school officials to set policies there," he said. The police department bought the cameras with money from a federal community policing grant it received to develop its wireless network, which also enables officers to get calls for service, access databases and send reports at the laptops in their patrol cars. Sweeny said the department received $110,000 for equipment and $23,000 for engineering and consulting services. Only a small part of that was spent on the surveillance system, which includes cameras, servers, networking equipment and software. Hatlestad estimated that cameras with pan, tilt and zoom capabilities cost about $2,500. Fixed-focus cameras cost about $800. Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4459. Here’s how the new surveillance system works The camera unit : The Central Point police surveillance system uses a pan-tilt-zoom camera housed inside a reflective dome. The dome’s shape and its anti-static, grounded surface keep dust from sticking to it for a clear view. The dome also houses a tiny heater and a cooling fan to maintain temperature and prevent fogging on the lens or dome. Two sealed covers protect the equipment from weather and dirt. A box attached to the camera unit contains a Web server that processes the images from the camera and a radio link to the department’s wireless network. Video isn’t stored on the server, but officers can take still photos with the camera and store them. The network — The police department has developed a wireless network that transmits data at a high radio frequency that is close to microwave frequency, said Arlen Hatlestad, president of PC-iNet, the company that designed the network. The network can transmit data and images. It enables police officers to access records, get calls, and send and receive reports from laptop computers in their cars. All information traveling over the network is encrypted for security and the public can’t access the network. 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