Video camera system gives State Patrol eyes in the sky

Duleth News Tribune
Sep. 18, 2005

They're helpful, mute little eyes in the sky, and soon there will be more of them.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation continues to install video cameras throughout Duluth and parts of the North Shore. New high-resolution cameras also have sprung up along the Interstate 35 corridor to the Twin Cities and soon will appear on the Blatnik and Bong bridges.

A State Patrol dispatcher monitors the cameras from MnDOT's Duluth district headquarters off Mesaba Avenue, in what's called the Transportation Operations and Communications Center. The center also tracks ice sensors in tunnels and controls 12 digital message boards in the area.

Dispatchers tune in whenever they receive a distress call within their line of sight, said Lt. Quint Stainbrook of the Minnesota State Patrol.

He said the visual system allows dispatchers to streamline resources, whether the call involves cruisers responding to a stalled car that might have moved on, or the exact location to send a firetruck.

The system is particularly useful in identifying the location of accident scenes, transportation officials said. People often don't know exactly where they are when they call 911.

Soon 25 cameras will be installed in the Duluth I-35 corridor, said MnDOT spokesman John Bray. The regional system, which began with 17 cameras in 1999, is valued at $1 million.

"We have cameras all over the place," Bray said. "They're all part of our monitoring system."

Each camera has two angles and can pan and zoom in on vehicles. However, the resolution isn't good enough to read license plates, and the cameras aren't capable of recording images.

A $139,000 contract will result in four cameras this year along the two major bridges between Duluth and Superior. Weather-sensing cameras also rest atop steel posts near Hinckley on I-35 and Highway 1 outside Ely.

In the Twin Cities, closed-circuit TV cameras have been in place on its highways since 1989. Now about 250 cameras cover 80 percent of the metro area's freeway system.

"Basically, anytime we get a camera, we put them on the Web," said Nick Thompson, operations manager for the MnDOT Regional Transportation Management Center in Roseville.

That includes cameras that monitor traffic and weather in Northeastern Minnesota.

State officials said they are for traffic management purposes only. It would take a new law to permit their use for law enforcement, such as photographing speeders or people who pass through red lights, Bray said.

However, in July the city of Minneapolis began using digital cameras at 12 accident-prone intersections to catch red-light runners. About 4,400 violators received $130 tickets in the first month.

And St. Paul city officials are considering not only installing cameras for red-light violators, but also for crosswalk offenders and speeders.

Critics compare the practice to Big Brother, and say it unfairly targets vehicle owners rather than the actual driver.

Red-light cameras also are used in at least 20 other states, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The cameras reduced red-light violations by 40 percent, according to the industry group.

The last bill to legalize the practice failed in the Minnesota 2001 Legislature. However, the Minneapolis Police Department program has yet to face a serious legal challenge to its cameras.

"I think it's a great idea, especially in work zones," Bray said. "It would ultimately reduce overtime for off-duty state patrol used to monitor the zones. It's bound to happen eventually."