by R. McFadden

LOS ANGELES -- December 12, 2002 -- Plans are in motion to install 24-hour video surveillance in downtown Los Angeles, the first such monitoring system covering all public streets in an entire neighborhood.

The appearance of the new spy cameras was reported in the November 18 edition of Los Angeles Downtown News. The cameras are being installed to 'increase security' in the Historic Core District. Nineteen cameras will be mounted along Broadway, Main, and Spring Streets between 4th Street and 9th Street.

The cameras are part of a plan already approved by the Historic Downtown Community Association that was submitted by the Historic Core BID (Business Improvement District), making it likely that before long this latest leap in security technology will be upon us.

Spy cameras are being considered even though there has been no substantial occurrence of violent crime or theft in the area in the last four years. According to Ken Aslan, Executive Director of the Historic Core BID, cameras are being set up primarily to videotape "illegal vendors" who sell their wares on the sidewalk. The video recordings will then be used as evidence to issue fines.

It disappoints and frightens me that the Historic Core BID is turning to video surveillance in light of the great work they have done in revitalizing the once moribund Broadway. The BID already manages a team of 16 security officers who run shifts patrolling the district on bicycles. These human eyes and ears on the street make the area secure with a public interaction and simple presence that no silent, mechanical spy camera will ever be able to do.

Installation of BB spy cameras as a strategy of urban renewal or as accepted practice to increase 'security' in public areas raises the chilling possibility that this will be only the first of many areas of Los Angeles where citizens will be constantly monitored.

From Wilshire Gazette (January 2003)

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