A comfort to most but a cautionary tale to some, the long-awaited installation of 10 night vision-capable police security cameras from the Ocean Beach Pier to Dog Beach is now a fait accompli.
Supporters claim the cameras are essential for solving and preventing crime. Others say they’re intrusive.
On July 21, the city of San Diego held a press conference at the intersection of Newport Avenue and Abbott Street in Ocean Beach to officially dedicate the new security system.
The request for the new cameras was made by the San Diego Police Department with the blessing of Ocean Beach Town Council.
“These cameras will deter crime and I want to publicly put would-be criminals on notice – if you come to Ocean Beach and commit a crime on our public beaches, you will be on camera and will be caught,” said District 2 Councilwoman Lori Zapf, who was able to secure about $25,000 for the installation of the new security cameras.
Noting the new security cameras are on a “two-year test run,” Denise “Denny” Knox, executive director of the OceanBeach MainStreet Association (OBMA), believes the cameras will be an amenity arguing, “There are a few misinformed individuals who think someone is actually watching them 24/7.”
“The value of the cameras is that if a crime is committed, the police and investigators have one more tool in the toolbox to try and solve the case,” said Knox, adding, “There is no ‘abuse.'”
Pointing out “homeland security cameras have been up for years” in OB, Knox questioned why detractors aren’t questioning their use, as they are the more recently installed ones.
“We have no idea what those (homeland) cameras are catching,” Knox noted.
But not everyone in the beach community was happy with the installation of the new cameras.
“The cameras are unwarranted and unneeded,” said Rick Callejon, community liaison for a group of citizens and merchants called Ocean Beach Citizens Against Privacy Abuse (OBCAPA), which campaigned for months against installation of the cameras. “They are a waste of taxpayer dollars.”
Callejon noted OBCAPA has been “opposed to spending taxpayer money earmarked for the project,” adding that funding would have been better spent “on outreach and counseling for the homeless, to address the needs of the Ocean Beach Library, or the crumbling lifeguard tower.”
Callejon claimed allocation of the money from Council District 2 to the police was done “with virtually no community input.”
Insisting lifeguards and police don’t have the staffing to monitor the new cameras, Callejon has claimed that, “No crime statistics justify the implementation of the security devices.” He added, police “hope” the cameras will serve as a deterrent to crime.
“However, studies show that when cameras are in place, illegal activity migrates to nearby neighborhoods out of the range of the cameras,” Callejon said previously in public testimony.
Zapf’s Council office noted OB’s new security cameras are on a loop that is not monitored or reviewed unless a crime is reported, while adding, “This will give law enforcement a valuable crime-fighting tool to provide evidence and allow prosecutors to go after criminals to the fullest extent of the law.”