Sunday, June 14, 2009
News

From Big Brother to the bumbot

Depending on who the next mayor will be, Atlanta may be in for more security cameras—and maybe some robots—in its fight against crime

Photos/Patrick Bray
Cameras are everywhere you look—on the wall of the Atlanta Federal Center (left), at Underground Atlanta (center) and in Woodruff Park near Georgia State University (center).

By Patrick Bray

In George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” surveillance is a part of life, with devices built into every room, in every home and every building. Of course, in reality, 1984 has come and gone, but some aspects of what was once considered science fiction have made their way into reality.

Such is the case with surveillance cameras. In Atlanta, you may not even know they’re there—until you start looking for them. Then, you’ll see them at intersections, grocery stores, shopping malls, government buildings, clubs, ATMs—just about everywhere you go.

These cameras are operated either by the city or by private businesses. The city-operated cameras are monitored by the Atlanta Police Department, and even though it may seem like they’re ubiquitous, lots of U.S. cities deploy more cameras than Atlanta—one reason why the topic came up in a City Council budget hearing in May.

Mary Norwood, a councilwoman and mayoral candidate, proposes using more surveillance cameras throughout the city, including in residential areas. Already, cameras have been deployed in business districts and Downtown, mostly because businesses have asked for them.

According to Norwood, this is not the gateway to Orwell’s “Big Brother.” She believes residents will welcome cameras into their neighborhoods as long as they get to decide where the cameras are pointed. She claims that her surveillance camera proposal would be initiated from the neighborhood up, and that no one at City Hall will be making decisions as to which neighborhoods to place cameras in.

“Neighbors know where problem houses are,” says Norwood. “Nothing I am talking about would be done without initiatives from the neighborhoods.”
  
Norwood testifies to the effectiveness of surveillance cameras with an anecdote about a resident she refers to as Mr. Chen, who set up a camera on his house, pointed at the end of the street.
  
“Within a week the SWAT team was there,” she says. “He helped shut down a crime spot.”
  
Despite the rise of crime in other parts of Atlanta, the Buckhead Coalition reports crime is down in Zone 2. There have been many steps taken to control crime in Buckhead, including the coalition’s payment of rewards for catching criminals—and, of course, the deployment of surveillance cameras. Leased through the Buckhead Alliance, the cameras are operated under agreement with the Atlanta Police Department.
  
Former Atlanta mayor Sam Massell, president of the Buckhead Coalition, will not say how many cameras are in Buckhead, or where they are located specifically. But he does admit they are easy to spot.
  
“The number is always in motion. It changes,” he says. “Some are small but can still be seen. Others are on buildings. Some are low enough to the ground to monitor traffic.”
  
As for being a deterrent to crime, Massell doesn’t give cameras all the credit, but he admits they work.
  
“You’re never positive about what mental effect a camera may have on a criminal mind,” he says. “It may just be the fear of getting caught.”
  
Massell says surveillance cameras have provided evidence in arrests and convictions in Buckhead.
  
“Five human witnesses may give different descriptions, whereas the camera only gives one,” he says.
  
Buckhead first brought in security cameras five years ago to monitor the area’s night life, which has since moved to other areas.
  
“They controlled a bad situation,” says Massell. “Too many clubs led to too many fights.”

JUST FILMING CRIME

Signs throughout Atlanta warn potential criminals that areas are under 24-hour camera surveillance. However, according to local bar owner Rufus Terrill, who is also running for mayor, just because the cameras are rolling doesn’t mean people are protected.
  
“I was robbed at Restaurant Depot two weeks ago. They just got the images today,” Terrill told The Sunday Paper in a May interview.
  
Terrill says that with typical surveillance cameras alone, all that law enforcement is doing is filming crime. He points out that cameras do no good if the images are not processed in a timely manner.
  
Terrill also believes cameras are ineffective in any area if they remain stationary. That is why he has gained a lot of media attention for building a security robot to patrol the area around his bar, O’Terrill’s, in Downtown Atlanta. His robot is nicknamed “the Bumbot” because of its frequent use in fending off aggressive panhandlers.
      
Terrill built the Bumbot using an electric scooter chassis, and equipped it with a loudspeaker, spotlight, surveillance camera, and a water cannon that can spray up to 100 feet on high pressure. The images from the Bumbot’s camera are beamed to a flat-screen TV in the bar, where Terrill maneuvers the robot, much to the delight of bar patrons.
  
“I like having fun with him,” says Terrill, adding the Bumbot has no lethal capabilities and cannot hurt anyone. “He’s just a rolling security camera.”
  
So far, Terrill has not recorded any significant crimes through the Bumbot’s camera lenses besides loitering, although he believes the robot could help significantly if it did encounter a crime, because Bumbot’s camera view is always being monitored by a live operator.
  
“One cop could control five or six of these,” he says. “When I am mayor, I’m going to have one on every corner.” SP