County’s eyes are on you
40 more cameras going up on island
by Peter Sur
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, July 29, 2010
Evildoers beware; 40 electronic eyes are being installed in downtown Hilo, Kailua-Kona, Pahoa and at Akaka Falls State Park.
The high-definition cameras can record and transmit video and even see in the dark. They can identify license plates and capture faces. And some of them are already operational.
Money for the cameras comes from the Hawaii Tourism Authority, which is funded by a portion of the transient accommodations tax levied on hotel guests. The County Council in 2008 accepted a $488,948 Police Department grant to install them.
According to Police Maj. Larry Weber, 16 of the cameras will be in downtown Hilo, 15 in Kailua-Kona, eight in Pahoa and one at Akaka Falls. They are intended to increase public safety.
“People come to Hawaii expecting paradise and to be safe,” said HTA Tourism Brand manager Momi Akimseu.
The statewide program results from the HTA’s 2005 Tourism Strategic Plan that identified several tourism initiatives, including one relating to visitors’ safety and security.
A pilot surveillance program on Oahu appeared successful in deterring crime, and the hotel tax-supported agency recently expanded it to Maui and Hawaii Island.
Government-funded security cameras have been installed in Pahoa as part of that town’s federal “Weed and Seed” program, but they have been disconnected and will be replaced by the HTA-funded ones. The Akaka Falls camera has not been installed yet.
Promises that the cameras won’t violate people’s privacy haven’t gone over well with the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii. The group issued a statement last year calling on citizens not to “give in to the impulse to blanket our public spaces and streets with government video surveillance and turn our aloha into a police state.”
Akimseu disagrees.
“The intent is not to be Big Brother,” she said, referring to criticisms that the cameras are a forerunner of the totalitarian dystopia described in the George Orwell novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four.”
“It wasn’t just people walking to work, people coming and going,” Akimseu said. “We’re sensitive to that.”
The cameras are not there to spy on people, she said. Rather, Akimseu portrayed it as part of an overall effort to protect the state’s economic engine — tourism — by supporting public safety.
Hawaii has traditionally had a low violent crime rate and a high property crime rate, with 31,424 theft and larceny cases reported statewide in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Akimseu acknowledges that having more officers on the beat is an effective deterrent, but she says the cameras will augment the existing force.
Weber, head of the Technical Services Division, said the intent of the cameras was not to catch motorists using cell phones or smoking in a car carrying children. Instead, he said, it’s for the benefit of visitors who might go to high-traffic areas “and so they perceive that it is a safe environment, because they know there are cameras that are keeping an eye on them and keeping an eye on criminal activity.”
“They’re not really geared to watch traffic per se,” Weber said. “I know people are going to be concerned that we’ll be watching for speeders or running lights. But that’s not our intention. It’s to oversee areas where tourists and people walk around. Like if you want to go to a restaurant with your family, and go to a restaurant downtown, or to the movies, or anything like that.”
Nobody has yet been convicted on video evidence, Weber said, but “we have had a couple crimes which we need to access the recorded information to see if it can help to solve the crime.”
Scientel Wireless, with headquarters in Lombard, Ill., started installing the cameras around the end of May. Police are able to watch the video feed on a manpower-available basis.
Dave Swirsky, the Hawaii-based business development manager for Scientel Wireless, said the digital cameras are wide angle, with the ability to zoom in closely on activity. Data is transmitted wirelessly through a network the company built, and recorded on a server.
The area covered by the cameras depends on the site, Swirsky said. Some of the dome enclosures have two cameras with a 180¬ degree field of view. Others allow a more detailed look at a particular area. Swirsky emphasized that police were not using the cameras to catch red light violators.
“We’re happy to help the county,” one of the company’s best customers, Swirsky said.
Two community groups, the Hilo Downtown Improvement Association and the Kailua Village Business Improvement District, are partners in the effort.
Alice Moon of the HDIA said the jury was still out on the surveillance program’s effectiveness until it is fully operational.
“The business people in downtown Hilo are very glad that this is happening,” she said.
Meanwhile, Danny Li of Keaau wasn’t so sure. He was shown one of the cameras attached to a light pole in the parking lot adjacent to the Mooheau Bus Terminal.
“I understand the rationale’s supposed to be increased security, but as a general idea, I think we’re just getting too overly surveilled,” Li said. He asked whether crime was that big a problem in downtown Hilo, and whether this was discussed in the community.
“Big Brother’s increased surveillance on all of us,” he said.
For more information contact:
Michael Zloza, Marketing & Communications, (630) 652-3809 mzloza@scientelwireless.com
Peter Sur, psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com
scientelwireless
Michael Zloza
