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Cameras would keep eye on behavior in Metro Parks LEE ANN O'NEAL / Tennessean.com | March 6 2006 Many cities use surveillance cameras to deter vandalism and theft, but a Metro Parks proposal to aim lenses into three Nashville parks to stop public sex acts would break new ground. Melissa Ngo, staff counsel with the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, said she knew of no other city in the country using cameras for this purpose. But Metro Councilman Michael Craddock of Madison said there is good reason to try it here. Some parks, he said, have become well-known havens for open sexual activity, including oral sex, masturbation and men exposing their genitals to passers-by. "What turned the tide for me was that a lady complained," said Craddock, whose district includes Cedar Hill Park. "She and her small young son were at Cedar Hill Park" and saw "a man masturbating. She was shocked beyond belief." But Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, believes there are better ways than cameras to deal with the problem. She believes the cameras will be ineffective and costly while diminishing the privacy of all parkgoers. "This is a Big Brother surveillance program that threatens not only our privacy but chills our speech and associational activity," Weinberg said. She said the plan, even on a small scale, "begins an inevitable slide toward an expansive surveillance system. "Frankly, it makes a lot more sense to spend scarce resources on community policing rather than surveillance cameras, which will only move crime from one corner of the park to another." The Metro Council in November asked the Metro Board of Parks and Recreation to install camerasat Cedar Hill Park, Two Rivers Park and Hamilton Creek Park as well as the Percy Priest Dam recreational area. Parks Director Roy Wilson said his staff estimates the project would cost $20,000 for 10 to 15 cameras and related equipment. No money has been allocated. The ACLU had strenuously objected to cameras that could capture conversations as well as pictures. Wilson said the parks board decided to use video-only cameras after its legal counsel agreed that capturing conversations would be too intrusive. Still, many logistical questions remain unanswered: • Where would the cameras be placed in the parks and would they be adequate to view all areas? • Who would monitor the cameras and when? • How much would that monitoring cost? Wilson said a Parks Board subcommittee would be assigned to address such questions. Meanwhile, Craddock says something must be done, and he cites arrest reports and a proliferation of Internet sex sites to buttress his view. As are other places across the country, some Metro parks are listed on several Web sites as opportune places to meet strangers for sex. The sites list rendezvous points, warn of police scrutiny in certain areas and allow Web users to post messages about their experiences. "My main concern has been with our parks being listed on national Web sites as the place to connect for this type of activity," Wilson said. One result: Parks police and Metro police cited almost 300 people last year for indecent exposure in Metro parks. The violators are not timid, officers say. "A lot of times," said Metro Police Sgt. Steve Brady, "our undercover officers can walk off in the woods by themselves, someone will approach them, and without saying a word expose themselves to them and start masturbating. "The times we have involved ourselves in conversation, it's usually casual conversation and has nothing to do with sex at all: 'Hey, how are you doing? Do you come out here much? ... And the guy will expose himself and start masturbating. "It's almost implied that if you are a male and you're in that area, that's what you're there for." Simone Willabus, 38, of Madison said she thinks cameras could deter such sex acts in the parks and would like to see them installed. She and her daughter, Shakari Sawyers, 2, go to Cedar Hill Park to feed the ducks. "It's for safety," she said. "I'm not doing anything wrong. … I think if the camera's there, people will be more cautious." But Hermitage cyclist Greg Ruff, 43, had reservations, even though he has avoided Hamilton Creek Park in favor of other parks after seeing a sex act there. "If it eliminates the problem, makes the park safe, I guess that's part of being an American in the 21st century. You have to give up some of your rights," Ruff said. "You go out there to get away from the computer and the telephone and all that kind of stuff. No matter what, as long as the camera is there, whether you see it or not, it's going to be in the back of your mind that it's there. We used to joke in the '80s about Big Brother. I think Big Brother's here." Chattanooga reports success in using cameras to deter vandalism at some parks and recreation facilities, as does Metro's public works department in deterring illegal dumping. Chattanooga uses surveillance cameras on the Walnut Street Bridge, a pedestrian walkway across the Tennessee River, to reduce vandalism, said Chattanooga Parks Director Dan Kral. "We installed them originally" to reduce "the vandalism and the damage that was done to the bridge, both to plant life … and the actual bridge structure itself," Kral said. "And it did do that." The wireless cameras cost up to $10,000 each, and the city plans to spend more, he added, saying by e-mail that "about $150,000" would go toward another phase of camera equipment along the city's waterfront. In Nashville, the public works department spent $10,300 for 20 real cameras and 32 less-expensive "dummy" cameras to monitor roadsides and alleyways where people dump trash. It has reduced the dumping, said Public Works Director Billy Lynch. "If you ride around and look up, you might be on camera," Lynch said. But using cameras to catch vandalism or illegal dumping, which leave physical evidence, may be easier than monitoring sex acts. If something is found vandalized, or officials find old furniture dumped by the roadside, they can focus their review of videotapes on those specific sites, at specific times, and grab the images of the offenders. Cameras aimed at deterring sex acts would be aimed at people who don't leave such evidence. Still, Craddock said he believes simply having a surveillance presence in the parks would discourage people from public sex acts. He said he will propose funding the project with money set aside for infrastructure projects in his council district and will ask other council members to do likewise. Each council district has such a fund. ---------------------------------------------------
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