Posted on 08/22/2002 11:52:27 AM PDT by PJeffQ
Surveillance cameras will 'patrol' city
Cameras will be mounted in USC, Five Points, other areas; monitored by police on patrol
By JEFF WILKINSON
Staff Writer
Columbia police will begin installing surveillance cameras on the streets of Five Points and several other areas of the city as early as October.
And City Council has agreed to buy $500,000 worth of new street lighting for the University Neighborhood adjacent to the Five Points commercial district.
The two initiatives are needed to improve public safety around USC and Five Points - a need demonstrated by last year's shooting death of federal prosecutor Michael Messer, city officials said.
But City Council passed no ordinance governing where the cameras could be placed or how the information could be used. The city already operates three cameras, one in Finlay Park and two in undisclosed residential areas.
But civil liberties groups are concerned about the expanded use of the surveillance technique.
"We don't want a Big Brother way of doing things in South Carolina," said Laverne Neal, executive director of the S.C. branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. "I don't know if this is something we want to see in the city of Columbia. And at least there should be some kind of policy regulating that type of information."
City Council member Jim Papadea, who had pressured the police to move forward with the controversial plan, said cameras would be placed in public rights of way to view public areas.
"They would observe just as you or I would if we were standing on a street corner," he said. "It's just like a news photographer taking a picture on a public street."
Papadea said he would be willing to develop an ordinance governing how the cameras are used, if needed.
The cameras initially would be installed in the Five Points/King Park and Arsenal Hill/Finlay Park areas and at points along Garners Ferry Road and North Main Street.
City manager Leona Plaugh said those areas don't represent high-crime areas. But they are urban commercial and park areas suited to this type of surveillance.
"They become extra eyes and ears for the police," she said.
Police Chief Charles Austin wouldn't say where the cameras would be located or how many would be placed in each area.
But he said if they were effective in deterring crime or catching criminals, City Council might decide later to place more of them in other parts of the city.
"Once we assess the effectiveness of these cameras, we can begin putting them in other areas," he said.
Dennis Hiltner, president of the Five Points Merchants Association, said the organization hasn't taken an official position on the cameras. Some members have privacy concerns, though, he said.
"But they are a minority. I don't see those arguments as valid," Hiltner said. "The cameras, just by their presence, are a deterrent to crime."
Messer, from Chicago, was shot while walking through the University Neighborhood with another prosecutor who was training with him at USC's National Advocacy Center.
"We've had one tragedy after another, some more publicized than others," City Council member Anne Sinclair said. "We have people jumping out of the bushes. Homes being entered."
Council members acknowledged the amount of money being funneled into the USC area for lighting and surveillance is higher than for other areas of the city.
But they said it's needed because of the number of students who travel on foot there.
"We hold the university and that neighborhood to a higher standard (on zoning, preservation and other issues), and we need to treat that neighborhood with a higher standard" of city services, Sinclair said.
The cameras, installation and training cost $117,000. City Council on Wednesday approved the purchase of 12 cameras.
The cameras, mounted to poles or buildings, would be connected to monitors in patrol cars, so officers could respond quickly should they see something suspicious. Officers also can control the tilt and rotation of the cameras from their cars. They also will be able to make the cameras pan and zoom in.
The cameras are capable of storing 30 days' worth of digital images that can be retrieved on a master computer at police headquarters, Papadea said.
The cameras aren't designed to be mobile. But they could be moved to other areas of the city as needs change, Austin said.
USC officials were supportive of the surveillance cameras and worked closely with the University Neighborhood Association to develop the plan to add streetlights in the area.
"I'm gratified and enthusiastic about this plan," USC President Andrew Sorensen said of the lighting plans.
City Council members are still debating how to pay for the $500,000 worth of streetlights.
Under an agreement being finalized between the city and SCANA Corp. over transfer of the area's bus system, the utility would provide $500,000 a year for street lighting, burying power lines and other related projects.
The city would have to match that total to make it available.
City officials said they would determine later whether to use SCANA money to pay for the lighting or use their own funds and free the utility's money for other purposes.
"We have plenty of projects," Mayor Bob Coble said.
The streetlights would be installed on ornamental "Charleston fluted" poles similar to the light fixtures along Gervais Street, city officials said.
Also, area power lines would be buried as part of the project.
No start time has been set for the lighting project.
Richland County Sheriff's Department
LEON L. LOTT, JR.
Sheriff
NEWS ADVISORY
AUGUST 22, 2001 Contact: Lt. Joseph Pellicci
(Work) 691-9025
(Pager) 765-6205
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FOUR TEENAGERS ARRESTED IN SHOOTING DEATH OF FEDERAL PROSECUTOR
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The Richland County Sheriff's Department, the City of Columbia Police Department, and the FBI have announced that four arrests have been made in the August 20th shooting death of Michael Messer. Messer, 49, of Morton Grove, Illinois, was shot and killed at approximately 9:55 p.m. Monday evening in the 800 block of Laurens Street during an attempted robbery by four teenagers.
Messer and Richard Ferguson of Naperville, Illinois were in Columbia attending a federal training seminar at the National Advocacy Center on the University of South Carolina Campus. The two assistant federal prosecutors were walking back to the Advocacy Center from Five Points when the incident occurred. Ferguson was also shot during the attempted robbery, but managed to escape, receiving a gunshot to his right arm.
The four suspects arrested in Messer's murder are:
* Abram Douglas Braveboy, dob of 12/7/82, 2113 Tammy Drive, Columbia
* Cichey Levar Mayo, dob of 2/7/84, 8308 Old Percival Rd, Columbia
* Bryan Murray, dob of 10/6/84, 7920 Spring Flower Rd., Columbia
* Willie James Murphy, Jr., dob of 5/23/85, 125 Leeside Circle, Columbia
Braveboy was arrested August 21st at the Richland County Sheriff's Department. Mayo, Murray, and Murphy were arrested at their respective homes by authorities this morning. Each of the four suspects is facing the following charges:
-murder
-assault and battery with intent to kill
-conspiracy to commit armed robbery (multiple counts)
-armed robbery (multiple counts)
-attempted armed robbery (multiple counts)
The charges stem from five separate incidents involving the suspects, beginning with a random shooting August 17th at the Sonic restaurant on Two Notch Road, and ending with numerous armed robberies on the evening of August 20th. An older model gray Volvo was a common link in many of the crimes.
Richland County Sheriff's investigators broke the case with the arrest of Braveboy. Tuesday morning, August 21st, Braveboy was driving a gray Volvo on Two Notch Road when his vehicle was struck by Sheriff Lott's car during the pursuit of the Bank Of America robbery suspect.
Braveboy drove off before deputies arrived, but Tuesday afternoon, Braveboy's mother came to the Sheriff's Department to report that her son was involved in an accident with a police officer. When investigators discovered the car in question was an older model gray Volvo, they received consent to search the vehicle and discovered several items connected to the murder and robberies.
"We were able to solve this case through, what I call, divine intervention," Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said. "The chances of me running into the murder suspect during the pursuit of another suspect are a million to one. But there is no question that through the diligent efforts of my department, the City of Columbia, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney's Office, these individuals would eventually have been arrested. We're just thankful the arrests were made before any more innocent people were harmed."
3000 people were murdered on 9/11.
Over 200,000,000 people were murdered by police states.
You do the math.
You want to stop crime, put a cop on the street. You want to fill out reports, put a cop in an easy chair and let him watch tv...
"despite all the ACLU half truths and spin, in every city where it has been used, crime is down dramatically."
Crime could be reduced even further if the government imitated curfews and began putting cops on every corner. Think about it, every time you take a walk someone checks your paperwork. Sound familiar?
Freedom bears inherent risk but I for one would rather take my chances of being mugged than being followed around from place to place by this not so well meaning parent.
No. Although dissidents in Britain - who lack guns - have successfully attacked spy cameras and traffic cameras by lassoing the camera head with ropes tied to car bumpers, the weak point of typical spy camera and traffic camera systems in the U.S. is that large ground-level box containing the control electronics; see photos.
Which require a lens. I saw the pix, and the cams are indeed
quite high, but I still contend that a well placed paintball
will foul the lens, regardless of control boxes on the ground.
Shoot the camera head with a paintball - a difficult shot at a small object about twice the height of a utility pole, and whatever agency runs the system cleans it up within a couple days. Sure, you can keep messing up the lens - and they can keep cleaning it up, probably eventually giving up on it.
But shoot that ground-level control box (see photo) - an easy shot at a big target - with a deer rifle, and its $10,000+ in electronics are ruined and a complex repair is needed. Best of all, you can do it from hundreds of yards away - out of the spy camera's vision!
All for it unless SCANA uses it to spot employees eating Maurice's Barbecue.
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