Police cameras

[from MPD Commander Hilton Burton]

As of yesterday afternoon [8/29] CCTV cameras are up and operational at 5th and Kennedy NW and in the 3700 block of Georgia Avenue NW. The camera at 5th and Kennedy will be able to cover the 400 and 500 blocks of Kennedy Street NW, and the 5400 and 5500 blocks of 5th Street NW. The camera in the 3700 block of Georgia will be able to cover the 3700 and part of the 3800 block of Georgia Avenue, and parts of the 3600 and 3700 block of NH Avenue NW.

Signs are posted in these areas advising citizens that the locations are being monitored by a camera. The cameras are not constantly monitored by officers but are recorded on a 10 day loop. Therefore, if a crime is committed in these areas we have 10 days to review the recording for evidence before it is recorded over.

These are the first of several cameras that will be placed in the Fourth District over the next month. If anyone has suggestions for locations please advise your Councilmember, your ANC or your PSA official.

Comments

[Adam]

The prominent drug dealers in my neighborhood, who can be seen carrying weapons, are known by sight by many people who live here. When I first moved to Petworth about six years ago, I thought it was prudent to get along in some way with the dealers – alone I was no threat yet an easy target if I made trouble. So I waved, smiled, and over the years claimed my route through the alley to my backdoor, mostly without incident. Sometimes, I actually felt protected by the dealers – a stranger in the alley might rapidly approach me only to have someone call them away. Or when my unexpected presence interrupted a drug deal, someone would say “he’s ok,” and their hands would fall away from their pockets.

The drug money helps pay mortgages, it buys prescription medicine for elderly homeowners, and it provides a living for high school dropouts who have no reasonable hope – or, possibly, motivation – to obtain a conventional job. Meanwhile, there is an insatiable demand for drugs from the city, the suburbs – it seems to span every demographic.

I fear the drug dealers: what I don’t know about them and what little I do know. I am angry about the whole situation, for me and for them. I immediately tense up when I catch an angry look or am made to feel like I don’t belong in the neighborhood. Over time, the proportion of visibly dealing homes and non-dealing homes has improved. But business remains brisk for those who stay.

Once the police offered to use my house for an undercover stake out. I wouldn’t do it. Would you trust the police to keep your identity a secret, not to make an error that could place your life or property in danger? I can’t do it – I need to protect my own butt.

Yet just two police officers, walking one square block from the corner of 8th and Taylor, using their own noses and eyes and with no special training, could detect enough probable cause to make several drug- and gun-related arrests on any given day. Elaborate undercover operations, police cameras, and a hundred more police officers don’t seem necessary to get the job done.

Street arrests wouldn’t put an end to the problem, but it would make the neighborhood a lot less convenient to deal in and chip away at the tacit understanding that drug dealers “own” portions of the street (and, especially, the alleys).

Cameras are another way to distract our attention (and taxpayer money) away from the problem, which is much more complicated than to be addressed by passive surveillance, sheer numbers of police, or squad cars that blink non-stop as they speed by.

[Lisa]

My experience with police in the community: I met an officer while he was dining at Temperance Hall. We chatted about various things. (My opener was who he'd support for mayor, as a city employee, but he doesn't live in the District.) The next time I saw him, it was because I noticed a police car turning in front of me at an intersection without signaling. He jumped out of the car to talk to me, all friendly-like. It was extra easy to get out of the car, since he wasn't wearing a seat belt. I asked how he thinks others will bother to obey any laws, since the police don't care to. He said he didn't signal and didn't wear a seat belt because he was at that moment pursuing a suspect and needed to move quickly. Yet he stopped to talk to me.
Adding 400 of these to the streets would be a setback. Better to get some of the bored kids and young adults something to do besides causing trouble.

[Joe Martin]

My own experience is that there are energetic, committed cops and then there are, let's say, less energetic ones. The pro-active, smart cops tell me about other cops they consider deadweights. Better management and accountability are key. We need to document specific cases where the response leaves much to be desired in order to demand accountability. Share that information publicly. Specifics are crucial. I have seen a lot of good police work here. Shepherd Park residents can tell you stories of running drug dealers out of their neighborhood and keeping them out. It takes commitment, organization, hard work and assertiveness. If they can do it in Shepherd Park, so can we. When you have found MPD lacking, what did you do about it? What demands did you make? I ask that somewhat rhetorically. This has to be a sustained, assertive effort block-by-block. I personally was centrally involved in shutting down a drug house on Webster Street. The night before last an immediate neighbor in that spot told me he had not seen drug activity "in months."

[Nathan Boggs]

Well we have tried getting the police to do all those things. They refuse to get out of their cars. They refuse to engage the community. As a result, technology fills the gap.

[Joe Martin]

One of our beat cops mentioned to me that we need to have the Focus Mission Team (undercover) in our area more often. The other issue always: We need to use the phones aggressively when there are problems, calling 911 (crimes in progress or emergencies, of course) or 311. Keep track of your calls, i.e. time, date, incident, and obtain a tracking number from the dispatcher. The information may be needed for follow-up and accountability purposes.

Reminder: When you call 911/311, you're not talking to the police, you're talking to people who work at the Office of Unified Communications.

[Erin]

My impression is that the jury is still out on the crime prevention benefits of CCTV, probably because whether they are effective depends so much on variables such as where the cameras are deployed, the type of crime or disorder that you hope to address, how the cameras are used, and whether police seem to be actively managing the cameras (meaning that the camera's benefits will wear off if police seem to have just put them up and forgotten about them). For instance, in one report of police attitudes toward CCTV's, police questioned the deterrent effects of CCTV, but also saw other important benefits:

"Police officers regarded CCTV highly and used it regularly in everyday policing. It was used extensively in town centres, to moitor public order offences, theft and assault. Images were seized regularly on a weekly or daily basis to identify offenders and witnesses, to approve or disprove alibis and for evidence in trials.

CCTV enabled officers to be deployed more effectively, as monitoring incidents allowed police to intervene quickly and stop incidents escalating. It also provided guidance for officers on the scene. Officers did however have mixed views on whether or not CCTV actually deterred potential offenders, particularly where alcohol was involved.

Police believed CCTV to be a cost-effective tool, that speeded up investigations and encouraged offenders to plead guilty, saving police and court time. Retrieving and searching through footage inevitably increased the police workload, but officers felt the benefits of CCTV were worth it."
http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/cctv44.htm

But, as DC1974 states, the majority of work in this area has been done by British criminologists and police practitioners, so there is not much of a baseline for knowing how effective CCTV's can be in the USA. Below is a link to a summary of the results of several studies on CCTV. This found positive crime prevention benefits for CCTV placements in the UK, but no crime prevention benefits for placements in the US.
http://ann.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/587/1/110

Below is a link to a volume with several articles on the topic.
http://www.popcenter.org/Library/CrimePrevention/Volume%2010/index.htm

As with so much, whether this initiative is effective will probably depend on how the police execute it.

[DC1974]

Show many any statistics that say cameras actually work. I'm fairly certain from everything I've read about England's use of CCTV that they don't actually work.

What works? Old fashioned police work. Investigative police work (is it possible that we are putting cameras around all over and have yet to build a state of the art crime lab?). And police walking and bicycling there beats. Targeting particularly troublesome repeat offenders for job training and other social services has also worked in Chicago, Boston, and Oakland.

But gee wow wiz: we get cameras! 'Cos you know? Those seem way more cool.

Call me unimpressed.