Gilroy installs downtown security cameras to encourage visitors

Gilroy installs downtown security cameras to encourage visitors

For two hours on a recent sunny morning, Danny Chavez and his buddy Max Limones relaxed at a sidewalk cafe in downtown Gilroy, glancing every now and then at a public surveillance camera strapped onto a signal pole across the street.The town famous for growing garlic at the southern tip of Silicon Valley installed the camera last month, the first of six that by year's end will see and record almost everything and everyone in the heart of downtown, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Lots of cities use public cameras to deter terrorists, criminals and even red-light runners,Wet, Deadly and Expensive, but No Monster, but Gilroy had another reason in mind that would have flabbergasted Big Brother's creator, George Orwell. In his famous novel "1984," Orwell warned against absolute government power and oppression abetted by mass surveillance. But Orwell probably never saw Big Brother as a public relations flack.

"The intention is, first of all, to dispel the perception that our downtown is not safe," said Mayor Al Pinheiro. Police reported 43 crimes downtown during the first six months of this year. These included nine acts of vandalism, eight car thefts, seven burglaries, five assaults and five robberies. There was one shooting when a 13-year-old robbery suspect was shot in the hand by his would-be victim.

The camera at Fifth Street and Monterey Road looks like a bulging eyeball pointed straight down with lenses inside that can swivel 360 degrees and read a license plate a block away. But there won't be a human eye at the other end 24/7. Most days and nights, Gallacinao said, dispatchers or police officers will scan the monitors as they go along their usual duties at police headquarters. But they can zoom the cameras when somebody reports a crime in progress or review recordings for evidence after a crime is committed. Police will keep the recordings for at least one year.