Gaithersburg leaders may turn to surveillance cameras on city streets and license plate scanner systems that check plates regardless of suspicion of guilt.
City leaders are now considering a budget that sets aside federal grant money for both the cameras and the scanner systems. District police already use surveillance cameras, and Baltimore police use both the cameras and a version of the license plate scanner systems.
Gaithersburg Police Chief John King says the city will likely place cameras in crime hot spots like the Lake Forest Mall bus terminal, where gang-related stabbings occurred last year, and in the Old Town neighborhood, but officials will consult with community members first.
“We plan to get community input to confront the Big Brother issue,” King said. “In a lot of places where these things have been deployed, their presence alone makes people feel safer and deters crime.”
King said leaders haven’t picked the camera or license scanner system model yet.
“We’re looking for smart technology that can help us with analytical things too — something we could program to flash when certain things occur, like when people run,” King said of the cameras, since they will be monitored by desk clerks handling other tasks at the same time.
The most basic version of the license plate scanners is hooked to patrol car computers, scanning a street’s worth of plates at a time and running checks to see if vehicles are registered to people with suspended licenses or warrants out for their arrest. Later versions can record all licenses passing through a neighborhood if officers are fighting a crime wave in a particular area.
Councilman Henry Marraffa said he’s OK with restricted use of the cameras but uncomfortable with the scanner systems.
“I am still of the old-school opinion that you’re innocent until you’re proven guilty,” Marraffa said. “And to randomly search plates until you find something wrong — I don’t agree with that.”
