Reinke wants security cameras on bridges

Marco Island Sun Times
Aug. 25, 2005

The security cameras would be installed on both bridges leading to the island (Jolley Bridge and Goodland Bridge), Chief Reinke said. There would be a video camera that records traffic and a camera that records license plate numbers. Computer software with optical character recognition (OCR), comparable to what home computer-users use in their scanners, transcribes the license plate photo into data that can be checked against a database. If the check revealed a stolen car, a warrant for the registered owner of the vehicle, or if the registered owner were listed in the sex offender database, the police would be alerted.

"If a crime was committed in Marco and we had a description of a vehicle used and a time frame to check, we could review the video to find the vehicle matching the description and its license number," Reinke said. "That would give us a lead to follow up on to determine if we can prove the persons using the vehicle were involved in a crime."

The total cost of the system as presented to city council at the workshop was approximately $100,000. City council will vote on the budget in September, and that vote will determine whether this project will be included in the FY 2006 budget.

When the Palm Beach County, Fla., town of Manalapan installed a similar system following a rash of expensive burglaries, it was met with mixed reviews. Some residents were grateful and appreciative that some kind of preventive action that could deter further incidents was being taken. Others complained about "big brother" and human rights violations. All acknowledged that whether we know it or not, we are the focus of cameras in most public places today.

Reinke said he is aware that some people could be concerned about privacy, "but the law appears to be settled that there is no expectation of privacy on a public roadway. Put another way: We could station police officers at the bridge to watch - or even videotape - all the vehicles coming and going. We could also check their tag numbers. Obviously it would be expensive to do this with human resources. Now the technology involved has become available at a reasonable price to allow us to do this more efficiently. We do not intend to check the video or license records unless it is in conjunction with a specific criminal investigation," Reinke said.

Reinke pointed out that we have all seen news media reports where the reporters videotape the traffic on the bridge, and any person could legally stand on the sidewalk and watch all the cars go by.

"The bottom line is," he said, "that no one should be doing anything on our bridges that they aren't willing to have observed by members of the public."