Sacramento Adult Entertainment: Martinez OKs surveillance cameras
The cameras will feed live images to a computer screen in the dispatch area at the police station. Dispatchers will be able to manipulate the cameras and zoom in if they see something suspicious. The police department has drafted a policy to regulate the use of the cameras that includes keeping the tapes for 10 days and ensuring that the cameras only monitor public areas where there is no expectation of privacy.
Law enforcement agencies say cameras help them solve crimes. But a 2009 study of the effectiveness of 71 surveillance cameras installed
in high-crime areas in San Francisco found mixed results. The study, published by the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic at the UC Berkeley School of Law, found that the cameras did not have an effect on homicides, drug dealing, prostitution or vandalism. However, there was a significant decline in property crimes — such as pick-pocketing, purse snatching and thefts from vehicles — within 100 feet of the cameras.