By Derrill Holly, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The role of a surveillance camera in the investigation into the abduction and killing of a young Florida girl is prompting local law enforcement to urge businesses with such cameras to check them often.
“If you’re going to have a camera, make sure it’s working,” said Lieut. John Crawford, a spokesman for the Alexandria, Va., police department.
According to Crawford, many stores have cameras, but when officers investigating robberies or other crimes need to review tapes, they discover the cameras were not operating.
“Either it’s broken, the light bulb was out, or they forgot to put a new tape in. That’s frustrating for detectives,” said Crawford.
Low cost surveillance equipment has made camera use widespread. Besides photographing transactions at cash registers, retailers are now using video cameras to monitor sales floors, parking lots and stock rooms.
Carlie Brucia, 11, was abducted Sunday evening in Sarasota, Fla. as she walked home from a friend’s house. Her body was found early Friday in a church parking lot a few miles away from where an automatic camera recorded her apparent abduction. Joseph P.Smith of Sarasota was being held on murder charges in her death. Smith, 37, is believed to be the tattooed man in a mechanic’s shirt seen leading the child away in the surveillance tape.
Government camera use is also increasing. Many are positioned in clear view near the entrances and loading docks of dozens of public buildings throughout the nation’s capital.
“We started recording after Marlon Morales’ death,” said Chief Polly Hanson, of the Metro Transit Police Department. Morales, 32, a transit police officer, was shot and killed during an altercation at the U Street-Cardozo subway station on June 10, 2001.
Cameras have aided criminal investigations and insurance probes of slip and fall accidents occurring in Metro’s 80 stations.
A privately owned camera located in a tunnel near Metro property in Rockville, Md., is monitored by a Metrorail station manager.
Images gleaned from privately owned cameras at establishments where crimes have occurred are bundled for display on the Montgomery County, Md., police department’s Web site.
“We access the information and share it with our officers at roll call,” said Cmdr. Mitch Cunningham, of MCPD’s Silver Spring District. Cunningham is encouraging businesses with older systems to upgrade to digital equipment.
But police across the region are discouraging the use of the once popular dummy cameras, declaring them useless.
“Only a dummy would have one. Crimes are committed in front of cameras all the time, so you have to wonder how much of a deterrent they really are,” said Matt Martin, spokesman for the Arlington County, Va., police.