About eight months ago, checking out a book at the Evanston Public Library became a little like withdrawing money at the bank: Now 16 cameras survey library-goers entering and exiting, looking for books and passing through the circulation desk.
In May 2005, the Evanston City Council voted to install 57 surveillance cameras on city property – including at the main library, 1703 Orrington Ave., the Evanston Civic Center. 2100 Ridge Ave., and the Dempster Street Beach – hoping to prevent crime and catch criminals. But one year later, many Evanston residents still doubt the benefits and fear infringements on their privacy.
The cameras are not monitored, said Max Rubin, Evanston’s director of facilities management. They record digital video to city computers that can be reviewed after an incident.
“I don’t have time to sit here and watch them,” Rubin said. “Nobody does. We’ll go back and look at the time period (of a reported incident).”
But library officials said the three times they attempted to use the video to investigate incidents, the images captured were not useful for identifying suspects.
“We haven’t been able to see the images clearly enough,” said Paul Gottschalk, the library’s administrative services manager. “There were no resulting charges brought.”
Still, Gottschalk said the cameras are “absolutely worth it” because they should deter crime.
“We have Northwestern students come into the library, put a laptop on the carrel and walk away for 20 minutes,” he said. “They come back and their laptops are not there anymore. If a person who commits crimes knows that there are cameras, he’ll be less likely to do it.”
But Gottschalk said he could not determine whether crime had decreased at the library since the cameras were installed.
At the Robert Crown Community Center, 1701 Main St., where six cameras were installed, there have been fewer petty thefts, said Nanci Fragassi, operations manager. She said people who know they’re on film are less likely to commit small thefts in the center’s lobby.
Many library-goers, however, aren’t aware of the cameras. And although city officials said all of the buildings under surveillance have posted signs warning of the cameras, no such signs are obvious at the library, raising the question of how prevention can be possible if criminals don’t know they’re being documented.
“I feel I should have been warned,” said Evanston resident Adam Lipowicz as he exited the library. “Not that I’m planning to do something stupid. But I don’t like Big Brother watching me.”
When the cameras were proposed last year, the projected cost was more than $133,000. Lipowicz said for the expense to the city, the cameras don’t seem cost-effective.
But Penelope Mesic, who witnessed a crime at the library entrance, said if the cameras had been installed earlier, the city might have been able to identify a boy she saw running away after knocking into an elderly man.
“Libraries are a focus for education,” she said. “But they’re also a focus for social disorder.”
Reach Jenny Song at [email protected].
