By Aaron Nicodemus, New Bedford Standard (Massachussets)
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. -- Big Brother or no big deal?
Under fire from the police union over his perceived lack of trust in rank-and-file officers, Chief Carl K. Moniz is defending his use of video cameras at police headquarters, saying he uses them as a security measure and for occasional checks, not as a tool for constant spying.
“I use them to spot-check different things,” he said. “Have I popped it on at home? Absolutely. I don’t spend hours in front of these things. But I’m responsible for what happens in this department, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. What is wrong with spot-checking every now and then?”
The union recently made public a “no-confidence” vote against Chief Moniz, asking him to step down. Mayor Frederick M. Kalisz Jr., who hires the police chief and would be the only one who could fire him, has stood by Chief Moniz.
Chief Moniz contends the no-confidence vote, taken in June, was prompted when members of the police union discovered the chief can monitor the cameras from home on a laptop computer.
In a letter explaining the vote, police union president Joseph A. Sylvia wrote that the chief’s use of the cameras to monitor police officers “clearly demonstrates the paranoia that you possess. You maintain an ill-conceived notion that your rank and file is up to no good and you need to watch them constantly to satisfy this notion.”
The letter also addressed other complaints, including criticism that the chief disbanded the department’s gang unit in favor of one from state police and that the chief allows Mayor Kalisz to “micromanage” the department. It also cited low morale and stated that the chief is turning a “blind eye” to the problem.
24-Hour Surveillance
The are 30 digital cameras inside and outside police headquarters -- recording 24 hours a day, every day, all year long -- monitoring all the public spaces in the police station. There are cameras located in the booking room, lobby and main hallways. Ten of the cameras watch every angle outside police headquarters, while three watch exits from the inside. Most of the cameras were installed when the former supermarket on Rockdale Avenue was converted into a police headquarters in 1998.
Chief Moniz was not installed as police chief until August 2003, when he replaced Arthur Kelly III.
There are no cameras in the different departments, nor are there any where police officers congregate to file reports. Break rooms are not on camera, although one camera watches a back door from inside, and a break room is just off camera. No private areas, like locker rooms or bathrooms, are on camera.
Chief Moniz noted that the computers can record only images, not sound. They are good security tools, he explained, noting that police can see anyone or anything approaching the building from any angle. The cameras are also helpful if prisoners file claims of abuse or misconduct against police officers. If a complaint is filed, the police can use the camera’s recordings to show what happened.
But there are three cameras focused on rooms primarily used by police officers, rooms that the public - in the form of prisoners, witnesses or visitors -- rarely enter. These are the cameras that Chief Moniz believes the union objects to.
Two cameras are in the roll call room, where officers assemble before every shift to receive instructions and alerts, and submit to inspection. Those cameras have been in that room all along, but the room only became the roll call room in April 2003. The room was previously the narcotics unit room, but the narcotics unit was moved to the North End station, and roll call was moved into the former narcotics room. There are no cameras in the North End or South End stations, which have been closed to the public since April 2003.
Old School Meets High Tech
Chief Moniz, a spit-and-polish police officer who freely admits he’s “old school,” has mastered the computer software that records the camera images. With the click of a mouse, the chief can look at digitally saved footage by entering a time and date to play back something that happened in the past.
He said he has put that technology to use to confront one of his sergeants, who the chief said was not carrying out roll-call inspections in the way he had been directed.
The chief said he strongly believes that police officers should be inspected before they hit the road. One of his sergeants had been telling Chief Moniz that he was doing the inspections, but the camera proved the sergeant was not. Chief Moniz said he took the sergeant to task.
“They should be inspecting people before they go out,” Chief Moniz said. He said he expects the sergeant in charge to line up officers and check to make sure they have their service revolver, nightstick and flashlight, as well as checking on their uniform. “I think that’s extremely important,” he said.
The union had also complained that roll calls were taking as long as a half-hour, and that information was not being distributed to officers. Again, the camera images showed the roll calls only lasted 15 minutes, and that information was being handed out, he said.
In its letter, the union charges that the cameras have been “turned in” to watch officers. Chief Moniz, perhaps taking this charge literally instead of figuratively, said that one of the cameras in the roll call room was adjusted slightly, “to catch more of the room.”
The only camera installed since Chief Moniz took over is in the communications room, where civilian dispatchers answer 911 calls. Chief Moniz said the camera has helped quell “horseplay” among dispatchers that was becoming a problem. The horseplay was occurring only when the shift commander had to leave his post in the communications room and monitor prisoners in the booking room.
Chief Moniz said an internal investigation into the horseplay resulted in the dismissal of two civilian dispatchers and disciplinary actions against three others. The municipal employees union that represents dispatchers has filed a grievance over the camera, which was installed in August, after the internal investigation was complete.
“These are professional dispatchers, and I have confidence in them,” he said. “I don’t want to make it sound like there were people not doing a good job. But we have some very expensive equipment in there, and that is where the department interacts with the public. It was crucial to get a handle on things. I believe we’ve straightened the problems out.”
Chief Moniz sought to dispel what he says are several other “myths” about the cameras. Only he and four other police administrators have access to the images, he said, and Mayor Kalisz does not have access.
There is one other new camera Chief Moniz would like to install, in the former roll call room now used to book juvenile prisoners. “It’s just an issue of our computer guys getting the time to run the wires,” he said.