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BALTIMORE -- Local and state homeland security authorities are beginning to build a regional network of 24-hour surveillance cameras that will go live this summer in Baltimore and expand through the area. The closed-circuit video surveillance system of public areas will begin in the Inner Harbor by the end of the summer, and a $2 million federal grant accepted by the city Wednesday will expand the cameras into downtown's west side by early November. "We're trying to build a regional network of cameras," said Dennis R. Schrader, director of homeland security for Gov. Robert Ehrlich. The network is part of a comprehensive strategy in the Baltimore area to spend $25 million in homeland security grants this year and to improve regional cooperation on terrorism concerns. The idea stemmed from a regional group of leaders that is jointly acquiring decontamination equipment and backups for 911 and power systems. The network of cameras will be placed in downtown's west side because it has light rail and Amtrak lines, federal and state government buildings, and many cultural institutions. "The purpose of the ... system is to provide for the homeland defense ... while also reducing crime and public disorder," reads the request for proposals. "Cameras will only observe and record that which a police officer or private citizen could legally see." At a surveillance center in the Atrium Building on Howard Street, 13 to 15 retired police officers or criminal justice college students will monitor images, said Elliot Schlanger, Baltimore's chief information officer. The system will be owned by the city and managed by Schlanger's office. The network would be able to connect with the state's existing system of closed-circuit cameras that monitor highways, he said. Eventually, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties would plug their systems into the city's hub. The city would also work to link its network with the closed-circuit television systems in use by the University of Maryland, the Downtown Partnership, Oriole Park at Camden Yards and other private institutions on downtown's west side. Before that network is built, the Baltimore Police Department will have constructed a separate surveillance center to continuously monitor microwave cameras now being installed around the Inner Harbor, said Kristen Mahoney, director of the Baltimore Police Department's grants and government relations section, which handles homeland security requests. Under the Inner Harbor plan, the cameras would be able to transmit images to helicopters and, eventually, police cruisers, Mahoney said. Dozens of surveillance cameras exist throughout downtown Baltimore to deter crime, but those images are generally taped and reviewed only occasionally. The new network, financed by grants from the Department of Homeland Security, is aimed at fighting terrorists as much as drug dealers. The proposed Baltimore regional system, agreed to by an arm of the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, could be one of the most extensive undertaken in the nation, experts said. "I have not heard of such a big project," said Cedric Laurant, policy counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "We reject the use of public video cameras in public places if ... used on a permanent basis." Arthur Spitzer, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area, said, "This is the first one I've heard of where apparently they're planning to put cameras around an urban area to keep them on all the time." He said cameras infringe on privacy rights and are ineffective in fighting crime or terrorism. "This is just another step toward Big Brother," he said. "One of the freedoms that Americans take for granted is the freedom to walk down the street without the government looking over your shoulder all the time."
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