By Brian Anderson
State Press

Aug. 29, 1997

TEMPE —Maybe Big Brother isn't watching after all.

After what ASU officials hailed as a step in crime reduction and increased personal safety, the 13 cameras peppered throughout the expansive Lot 59 have produced only a couple of arrests in their four years of operation.

The problem stems from the lack of personnel to monitor the system, said Carol McLeod, communications supervisor for the ASU police.

"It is very difficult for us to watch the cameras -- we have many other things going on," she said.

McLeod said for the system to be completely effective in curbing crime, a dispatcher must receive a tip from a citizen that a suspicious activity is taking place, zoom in on the specific area then send an officer to the scene.

She added that a dispatcher may notice suspicious activity on the monitors, but that is a rare occurrence.

"The only way (an arrest via the use of cameras) happens is when citizens call us and say 'there is a suspicious situation in such 'n such aisle.' Then, we focus in on what is being told to us and dispatch an officer to catch the burglars," McLeod said. "It works very nice, but we need the help of the citizen."

Dispatchers control the system using a keyboard-sized panel with small purple buttons and a joystick from the dispatch center at ASU police headquarters.

Two 19-inch monitors, stacked one on top of the other, allow operators a bird's-eye view from different locations within Lot 59. The lower monitor displays real-time pictures, while the other screen can be divided into quarters and programmed to show a sequential series of pictures.

The cameras produce tapes. But those tapes record only what is displayed on one monitor -- ignoring what is happening in front of the other 12 cameras.

Tapes can be reviewed after a crime occurs, but "it's a long process," McLeod said.

Another technical problem with the cameras is that pictures are not in color and they have a hard time focusing on license plates, McLeod said.

"It's difficult to explain to an officer the color of a car when we don't have color cameras," she said.

Additionally, the system is vulnerable to the damaging effects of Mother Nature.

In September of 1994, a bolt of lightning struck a system receiver, blowing out half the cameras.

Since that incident, McLeod said the cameras have been upgraded with fiber optics. They had previously been operating with microwave signals.

Currently, three cameras and one monitor are not working, she said. The wire that feeds the monitor was damaged in Tuesday's storm.

ASU Police Chief Lanny Standridge said the system functions as it was intended the majority of the time.

"We always have two or three cantankerous cameras that are not working," he said. "Most of the cameras work."

The equipment was installed in September of 1993 at a cost around $150,000. The switch to the fiber optics system cost an extra $70,000 to $90,000, said Bob Gomez, assistant director of risk management

He added that the abduction of then-ASU sophomore Theresa Hetherington was a part of the decision to fund and implement the system.

Hetherington was abducted Feb. 2, 1993 while walking to her vehicle in Lot 59. She was driven to the desert north of Gila Bend where the kidnappers cut off her ear, assaulted her, set her car on fire and left her for dead.

A state Department of Public Safety officer found Hetherington some 18 hours later after responding to a report of a burning car.

Bill Bess, the director of ASU's Department of Public Safety, said the system covers roughly 60 percent to 70 percent of Lot 59 and is only as good as the awareness of the people in the lots below cameras, which rest high atop light poles.

"The best thing is the people out there being alert," he said. "(Cameras) are intended to reduce (criminal) opportunity."

Standridge added that the cameras are intended to be a deterrent.

However, McLeod and dispatcher Patricia Lorenz said that most people don't even notice them.

Lorenz referred to one incident during Super Bowl XXX in January 1996 when a man was observed removing a sign right in front of one the cameras.

The system hasn't been a total failure, though.

Last year, McLeod said dispatchers were able to send officers to assist a fellow officer who was being attacked in Lot 59. The beaten man could not call for help himself because his attackers had knocked his radio from his hand.

Bess said the system is constantly being analyzed and there is no telling how many crimes have been prevented by the system.

In fact, the Department of Public Safety is currently compiling statistics for the lot to determine the cameras' effectiveness.

"We're looking at how the system can be improved," he said.

Standridge added that nothing is totally foolproof.

"We haven't apprehended a lot of people with the cameras," he said. "(But) I don't know of any system that is 100 percent effective. We want to do as much as we can to keep the campus and community safe."