A case of camera overkill
Supergroups are a mixed musical bag
See Mark Curdo’s music column on page 5
See Bob Higgins on page 4
SATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 2011 VOL. 2 NO. 251
PORTLAND, ME
PORTLAND’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
Sea Dogs manager a blast from the past
See the story in Sports, page 9
FREE
699-5801
Ready for your close-up? BY MATT DODGE
It turns out fl ash-in-the-pan R&B singer Rockwell had it right all along when he sang, “I always THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN
feel like, somebody’s watching me, and I have no privacy.” The hit single, featuring Michael Jackson no less, was appropriately released in 1984 and related the singer’s paranoid fear of being followed and watched. A dance remix of the record hit Number 3 in the United Kingdom, which remains the most heavily surveilled country on the planet with around 4.2 million closed-circuit (CCTV) cameras in use, or one for every 14 people according to BBC News. But the U.S. is no slacker itself, boasting 30 million cameras which shoot 4 billion hours of footage every week, according to Popular Mechanics. Here in Portland, the issue of CCTVs surfaced recently after the city council mandated that the owner of Ricky’s Tavern on Portland Street install cameras, with the bar’s entertainment license hanging in the balance. Tavern owner Ed Simmons said at a neighborhood meeting that he would put them in if residents thought they might help, but said his customers are not the problem for the Midtown neighborhood, which sees many drug and prostitution-related crimes. Police agreed with Simmons’ assessment and did not object to a liquor license renewal for Ricky’s Tavern or ask for the cameras, according to Assistant Police Chief Michael Sauschuck. Currently the city operates surveillance cameras in some offi ces where cash is exchanged, such as the city clerk’s offi ce, but the city’s only outdoor surveillance cameras are focused on the waterfront and largely subsidized by the Department of Homeland Security, according “Video surveillance to city spokesperson Nicole Clegg. carries real dangers of Many private busimisuse. They have been nesses operate their used criminally to harass own CCTV cameras, and the city’s Public and target people and they Services Departencourage voyeurism and ment Traffi c Section discriminatory targeting.” recently installed a system which uses — Shenna Bellows, execustereo cameras at tive director of the MCLU the curb of intersections to detect when a pedestrian is present at two crossings in Portland. Add in the dash-mounted cameras on police cruisers and streaming webcams trained on the public, and it’s not a question of if you’re being caught on camera, but how often.
Smile, you’re on closed-circuit camera “They’re everywhere,” said one police lieutenant. “They have a chilling effect on public life,” says the
Security cameras abound on the streets of Portland. ABOVE, clockwise from top left, they include cameras at Binga’s Stadium on Free Street; outside Asylum nightclub on Center Street; at Video Expo on Congress Street; and on Free Street gazing down at passersby. (MATT DODGE PHOTOS)
Maine Civil Liberties Union. “It’s the thing of the future,” according to a business owner. Like it or not, CCTV is here to stay, and the average American doesn’t seem to mind. A 2007 ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 71 percent of Americans favor increased video surveillance. While there are no official numbers on the number of surveillance cameras in use throughout Portland, they are not diffi cult to spot. A traipse down Free Street yielded no less than seven sightings with cameras installed outside bars, clubs and the Cumberland County Civic Center.
State law prevents the use of traffi c cameras to catch drivers who run red lights or commit other infractions, but there is no law barring surveillance cameras in general, according to Lt. Gary Rogers, Portland Police Department spokesman. “When a crime is committed it’s one of the fi rst things we start looking for,” said Rogers. “A lot your convenience stores have [them], pharmacies, Hannaford’s, banks — they’re pretty much everywhere nowadays,” he said. Cameras trained on gas pumps can often spot passersby on the sidewalk and have been used to see CAMERAS page 7