Surveillance Cameras in the Haight Ashbury: Call It Identity Theft?
Submitted by Willi Paul on Sat, 02/27/2010 - 18:17
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Surveillance Cameras in the Haight Ashbury: Call It Identity Theft?
A year ago, anyone with Internet access could watch Haight Street’s various hipsters, punks, hippies and tourists interact via FTC skateboard shop’s webcam. Kent Uyehara, who owns the 16-year-old shop, thought it would be a good way to drum up business.
“It was more for entertainment value,” Uyehara said. “I thought, maybe they’ll catch someone doing something crazy.”
Uyehara took down the webcam last year as the marketing experiment ran its course, but now he’s leading the way on a whole new experiment — turning on privately owned cameras along the freewheeling tourist destination in an effort to solve and prevent growing crime in the neighborhood.
The Haight Ashbury Improvement Association, the driving community force behind a “sit-lie” law in The City that would allow officers to cite people who are sitting on the sidewalk, is offering to pay $100 to at least 10 merchants who put up surveillance equipment outside their businesses.
Already, four businesses have volunteered to take the rebates, according to the association’s president, Ted Loewenberg. A surveillance package that includes cameras, recording equipment and all the wiring can be found for about $300 at Costco.
The association hopes that violence and vandalism will be reduced, and in the end save merchants money and time, Loewenberg said.
The retailers will install, operate and maintain the recorders. Merchants wouldn’t be required to hand over images to police without a court order, which could help appease many residents in neighborhoods where civil liberties have always been a top priority.
The District Attorney’s Office uses camera footage in cases all the time, according to district attorney spokesman Brian Buckelew. A Feb. 17 killing on the Sunset district’s Irving Street was all captured on film.
“It can make a case,” Buckelew said. Park Police Station Capt. Teresa Barrett calls the cameras a great idea, and Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who has been hesitant to support a law against sitting or lying on the sidewalk, said he’s been pushing for cameras for years.
“We’ve been looking at more measures like cameras and façade improvements,” Mirkarimi said. “I think it would help improve the Haight’s magnetism.”
But for some of the youth who have been targeted in the last months by police, the crackdown seems excessive. Logan Stoffle, a homeless 18-year-old, was roused by a police officer after he sat down to eat his lunch just off Haight Street.
“They shouldn’t focus the cameras on us,” Stoffle said. “The street kids aren’t the ones vandalizing these stores. The police should be focusing on real criminals, like down in the Tenderloin.” Uyehara says he just wants residents, tourists and the homeless to get along.
“We need to have a better balance if we’re going to keep this an attractive tourist attraction, a destination that’s also located in a residential neighborhood.”
Writer: Brent Begin, SF Examiner
