NORTHAMPTON — A subcommittee of the City Council has approved an ordinance that would restrict surveillance technology, including surveillance cameras, on property controlled by the city in the central business district.
The ordinance will be considered by the full council at its Thursday meeting. Mayor David Narkewicz said Wednesday on Twitter that he would veto the ordinance if adopted.
Though it outlaws surveillance technology for more than a period of one day, the ordinance does include a number of exceptions. Included in the ordinance’s definition of surveillance technology are surveillance cameras.
The ordinance passed with a neutral recommendation from the legislative matters subcommittee, with Councilors Ryan O’Donnell, James Nash and Gina-Louise Sciarra voting for it. Councilor David Murphy, meanwhile, voted against advancing the ordinance to the full council.
O’Donnell’s amendments to the ordinance included allowing surveillance technology in parking structures, as long as it does not record public areas outside them; removing references to mobile phone location readers in the definition of surveillance; and explicitly allowing temporary cameras in the central business district for criminal investigations and in cases of emergency. They also carved out an exception for the police station on Center Street.
O’Donnell said he drafted the amendments after having conversations with Police Chief Jody Kasper and his fellow council members. The amendments passed unanimously.
“This is exactly what the council should be doing,” said O’Donnell, who has been a champion of the resolution.
He said he objected to the resolution being characterized as a ban on cameras downtown. He also cast doubt on the usefulness of cameras in crime prevention.
“Surveillance cameras have not been shown to deter crime,” he said, while saying that they are useful in solving crimes that have already taken place.
He said the ordinance would serve as a check-and-balance mechanism on the installation of additional cameras downtown.
Murphy said he saw no need for the ordinance.
“It is totally unnecessary,” he said. “There is no reason.”
He said the City Council controls financing for capital projects, and can choose not to fund any cameras it finds to be objectionable.
“All we have to do is not fund it,” he said.
However, Murphy also expressed support for Kasper’s request for additional municipally operated security cameras downtown.
“If she says she needs them, I believe her,” he said.
Murphy said he expects the ordinance to pass by a 7-2 vote, the same margin by which the resolution opposing additional municipally operated surveillance technology downtown passed the council.
The City Council’s Thursday meeting is set to start at 7 p.m.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com