Surveillance camera OK’d in Cheney

The Cheney City Council gave police the go-ahead Tuesday for the installation of a surveillance camera at First and College streets.

Despite council member Teresa Overhauser’s outspoken resistance to the project, the resolution passed 5-to-1 in favor of utilizing the $69,000 Homeland Security grant. This money would be used to install the camera as well as the infrastructure necessary for a future surveillance network. Police Chief Jeff Sale told the council the security system could one day be used by private businesses as well as by the police.

Overhauser raised numerous issues surrounding surveillance cameras, including their effectiveness in deterring crime.

“No data exists (for their effectiveness) other than anecdotal evidence,” Overhauser said. She went on to question the cost of retaining evidence in the face of hazy public records rules which are still evolving to deal with the new technology.

“One thing I think the community needs to be aware of in terms of engaging in video surveillance is that in Washington state with our public records rules, we have an entire level of cost that is going to be accumulated, in maintaining, researching and responding to public information requests,” she said.

Overhauser argued that any video viewed by law enforcement personnel would become public record, which would mean the footage would have to be maintained for a period of seven years.

“There are agencies in our state that have actually turned their video surveillance systems off because they’ve had so many records requests it became a financial impossibility for their community agency to respond,” she said.

Council member Curt Huff countered that if the camera does end up costing the city money it could likewise be shut down.

Sale said he’d been assured by the Washington state Archives Department that video footage must be retained for over 30 days only when the information would be used in an investigation.

While he wasn’t entirely sure about the retention issue, city attorney Nathan Smith allowed that, “I believe that in that window of time, in 30 days, any documentation stored by the city becomes a public record. If somebody says, ‘I want to see what happened at 11:55 in the morning on the 22nd,’ they’re going to have the right to see what happened on the video because it is a record in the hands of the city.”

Council member Annette Mather said she had received input by local residents on both sides of the issue, but that she would support surveillance due to continued city growth. “I feel the majority of people don’t have a problem with it because, with the expansion coming in, we don’t have law enforcement that can sit downtown 24-seven. The city is growing and the Police Department is not.”

Sale said that, while the cameras will not be monitored 24 hours a day, officers will be able to access at any time a video feed of the area between the 300 and 500 blocks of First Street.

Crime has increased dramatically in Cheney this past year. According to statements made by Sale in previous council meetings, the department experienced a 74 percent increase in crime rates over the first two months of 2009. Over the last three years, crime in the area that would be covered by the camera has gone up and in 2008 there were over $5,000 in damages.

“We’re trying to beautify the city but vandalism keeps happening,” said council member Mather. “We need to hold people accountable for that because it’s costing the city quite a bit of money to go out there after every weekend’s party and replace the things that are getting spray painted and broken and kicked over.”