Shooting for litterbugs

Renaissance camera pulls double duty

By FRITZ MAYER

LIBERTY, NY — Spend a few moments in front of the video screens in the Village of Liberty Police station, and you will likely pay a little extra attention to traffic laws the next time you motor through town.

For perched above Main Street are six video cameras that give police an uninterrupted view of activity on the street in the busiest part of town. Police chief Robert Mir said since the department received the cameras two years ago, incidences of littering and graffiti are nearly gone, and so are drug sales on the street. The cameras have also helped with more serious offences. With cameras acting as extra eyes for the force, police apprehended a murder suspect, caught a bank robber and got drunk drivers off the street.

Now, thanks to a $2,000 matching grant from Sullivan Renaissance, the village will be getting a seventh camera, which will allow them to monitor Mongaup Creek, which runs parallel to Main Street.

At a news conference in front of the police station on June 1, Mir said that the camera would help deter people from illegally dumping trash or liquids into the creek, which happens sometimes due to its close proximity to several parking lots. Mir also said the camera would give police a view of part of the property of the Liberty Elementary School, which their cameras can’t now reach.

The six cameras already in operation are discreetly mounted high on buildings and, through a joystick, a staffer manning the cameras can pan, zoom and jump from one camera to the next, following a car or person as they move through the town.

The grant is part of the 2009 Municipal Clean Up Program. Now in the fourth year, the program was designed to help municipalities clean up roadside dumps and take down derelict buildings. This year, anti-littering projects were added to the mix.

Along with the Liberty Police Department, the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office will also receive a matching grant of $2,000, also for a camera. This camera won’t be placed in a single space, but instead may be a mobile unit that will be moved from one spot to another where illegal dumping is likely to occur, or has occurred in the past. The details on this project aren’t settled yet.

Glenn Pontier, Renaissance program director, said, “We don’t know how it will work. This is a demonstration program; it’s an experimental program. We may find, for instance, it’s not cost effective.” He said that’s why a foundation is funding it. If it were proven technology, remote dumping cameras would already be located all over the place.

Asked if the cameras might seem somewhat invasive, Mir said, “The cameras are not invasive because they don’t see into anyone’s living room, so we’re not monitoring what’s going on in anyone’s home. Basically, the camera can see anything that the human eye can see; it just does it from a better vantage point.”

Tearing down buildings

The most visible part of the Renaissance clean up program, however, remains the part that targets unsafe, derelict buildings. Since its inception, the program has removed 34 buildings in the county, and in a partnership with Sullivan County, a significant portion of the debris left in the wake of the building demolitions has been disposed of without cost at the Sullivan County Landfill.

This year, 11 buildings are slated to be torn down all over the county, from two derelict structures on the Flats in Narrowsburg to a commercial building on Main Street in Mountaindale.