Authorities Look To Install Cameras At Bartlem Park
November 16, 2009 by Josh Morgan
The latest rash of vandalism at Bartlem Recreation Area has kicked an effort to install surveillance equipment at the park into full gear.
Over the Halloween weekend, vandals coated the skate park with racial slurs and obscene language. The Yellow House and public restrooms were covered in graffiti, and the police are still looking for those responsible for the Halloween night high jinks. If there were cameras monitoring the park, the chance of catching the vandals would be increased, and if the park was being watched at all times, officials believe these problems might not even exist.
“There have been periodic acts of vandalism there, but nothing as bad as what happened over Halloween,” said Town Manager Michael Milone. “After this latest episode, we need to see if we can cobble up the funds to put surveillance up around the park.”
Over the last six months, the idea of putting cameras in the park has been discussed, but funding is ultimately a factor. The Police Department has some additional grant money, as does the Youth and Social Service Department to help offset the costs. The estimated cost of the project is around $14,000 and, outside of the grants, nearly half of that amount would need to come from the Parks and Recreation budget. Director of Parks and Recreation Bob Ceccolini believes he could absorb the $7,000 for the much needed project.
“Hopefully this will deter people from doing something illegal in the park,” Ceccolini said. “It will deter any illegal activities and keep predators out of the park.”
Ceccolini envisioned cameras being able to cover the skate park, the fields, the playground, as well as the outside of the pool building and the driveways in the park. He said the cameras would most likely be mounted behind tinted globes, so there would be no way to tell which way the camera was pointing at a given time. Also, through computer access, the police and other authorized staff members could view the cameras in real time, zoom in on certain areas, or make adjustments if something looks suspicious.
“We can go online and see what’s going on at the park,” Ceccolini said. “We won’t just be re-looking at surveillance footage.”
Milone said that, while vandalism is certainly an issue at the park, loitering is a bigger concern, especially when parts of the park cannot be seen from Route 10. He hoped that the cameras would be able to “highlight certain parts of the park,” especially near structures that are targets of vandals or areas that cannot be seen from the road to prevent illegal activities from taking place.
“There’s always been some vandalism, but people can loiter there and that’s our biggest concern,” Milone said. “We hope we can guard against that.”
Michelle Piccerillo, director of Youth and Social Services, said the Town tries to promote activities at the Yellow House where teenagers will be supervised. However, Piccerillo said she knows that, after dark, there are areas at the park which are tough to see and that could lead to “not so great activities.”
“There are certainly kids participating in risky behaviors at the park, so this is part of a preventive measure for us,” Piccerillo said. “I think it’s a great cooperative effort on the part of the Town. This is an intervention to stop risky behavior there.”
Ceccolini said there would be occasional maintenance or upkeep on the system, but mostly it would be a one-time cost. He said he knew of other communities that have put cameras in parks to deter illegal activities, some of which even stream the camera feeds live on the Internet.
He commented that Cheshire wouldn’t go that far with the surveillance at Bartlem park, but would monitor the area to make sure property isn’t damaged and other illegal activities do not occur.
“We hope to see that people are reluctant to vandalize the park because they know they will be on camera,” Ceccolini said. “This will be a great tool for us to find out who is in the park and what they are doing there.”