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Ridgely Residents Question Surveillance Cameras The small Eastern Shore town of Ridgely is getting a closed-circuit camera surveillance system. The surveillance cameras, which will be installed in the next couple of weeks, were bought with a $7,000 federal grant from the Department of Homeland Security. Police Chief Merlin Evans said he is determined that the town won't be caught off-guard. He also believes the cameras will be useful for run-of-the-mill police work, too. "I've been using grants for a long time," Evans told The (Baltimore) Sun. "One thing I can tell you is that if you don't ask, you aren't going to get a thing. We're a small town, and we need the help to be prepared for whatever comes along." Despite a bit of skepticism from some residents in the town of about 1,400, Evans plans to install three cameras outside Town Hall, two providing views in both directions along the Central Avenue business district, and the other focused on the police office's front door. One camera will provide a clear view of the town's wastewater treatment plant. Another will monitor a town park that Evans says has become a hot spot for drug deals. Townspeople who live and work along Central Avenue, the broad boulevard where cars park diagonally and there are no meters, say the security cameras have been a hot topic in the one-block business district. Mark Madachik, a pharmacist who moved 19 years ago from Ohio to a 25-acre farm outside town, dismisses talk about terrorists. "I'm all for homeland security, but in Ridgely, come on," he said. "They don't even have these cameras in Salisbury or Easton. I can understand the police wanting all the latest thing. Most people who come in here think it's nuts." Evans recently got approval for a grant to buy a $7,000 camera package for the nearby town of Preston, where he has been filling in as interim chief until the community of about 600 residents hires a new chief. According to Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) spokesman Jeff Welsh, the agency handled about $161 million in homeland security grants between the 9/11 attacks and 2004. Similar video equipment was purchased with homeland security grants awarded to small towns, as well as to many large county and municipal governments, including Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Harford counties. "It has become common practice with these grants to use homeland security money for that kind of technology," Welsh said. "The decision to apply is usually made at the county emergency management level, whether it's for a municipal or county government." Cindy Riddleberger, a Ridgely native who has run her insurance business on Central Avenue for 18 years, gives Evans credit for cracking down on drug use and other crime. But she is skeptical about surveillance cameras on a street where neighbors usually know who's in town because they recognize their cars. "I never thought I'd see the day in Ridgely," Riddleberger said. "The town has improved tremendously in the last five years or so. But even if you don't have anything to hide, you're still going to be on camera." |
