HAMLET — Hamlet Police don’t like to talk about the Tsunami cameras recently installed high above the city’s streets, silently keeping track of those who do business downtown. Or those who get into fender-benders.
They’re a crime tool best left out of the limelight, they say.
Nevertheless, the low-profile cameras have become the focus of a debate among City Council members — broken along somewhat traditional lines — after council member David Lindsey mentioned wanting to tap into camera footage to put together a time-lapse video showing the crowds at the recent Seaboard Festival. Lindsey isn’t a Seaboard organizer or volunteer but considers himself an amateur town historian.
Hearing of the request, fellow council member Johnathan Buie said at Tuesday night’s meeting that he did not think he or his colleagues needed access to camera footage anymore, even though they have had it since the cameras were installed some weeks ago. The issue was not on the council’s agenda for the night, but Buie introduced it during the “new business” portion of the meeting.
“None of us need access to them,” Buie said Tuesday, even though council members gained access when the cameras were introduced, so they could get a feel for how they operated before proposing to spend money on them. Hamlet police also have access to the feeds, which they can call up on their cellphones, using the appropriate login.
“Now that we’ve looked at them, evaluated them, liked them and purchased them,” Buie said, “they should be for you all (Hamlet police) to do your job” and not for anyone else.
Tsunami cameras are self-contained video recording units. Capt. Marc Terry said recently that police were able to gather evidence in a traffic accident in which a car hit a pedestrian. The driver stopped, Terry said — so there was no mystery. But police could view the accident themselves, supplementing witness accounts.
Stephen Teachout, founder and inventor of the Tsunami, appeared before council members during their budget sessions earlier this year to describe how the cameras could be used.
“Airports are using them on their runways to see malfunctions or accidents from the terminal,” he explained Wednesday. “Housing authorities put (them) it in their communities to deter crime, and (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) has used it after hurricanes to alleviate looting.”
Other government bodies — including the cities of Laurinburg and Wilmington, and Bladen County — also have Tsunami cameras. In Emerald Isle in Wilmington, Teachout said, investigators were able to retrieve video of a person who fell from a pier.
He said the cameras also could be used by the military, by schools and universities, by departments of corrections, and to monitor special events.
On Wednesday, Lindsey said his purpose for requesting footage from the cameras was to make a 30-second clip to show the setting up and tearing down of the festival, as well as the crowd.
“It wasn’t like I was trying to see what was going on,” Lindsey said. “We were involved with the festival in the past, and the vendors questioned if there was really 30,000 people in a town of 5,000, and this would have shown (there were).” Lindsey’s wife, Kim, had been chair of the festival board through last year.
If he had been able to make the video, Lindsey said, he would have shared it with Seaboard committee members to see whether it would be something they’d like to use on social media. The video would not have been for personal use, he said.
He since has given up the idea, he said, because “some things are just not worth the fight.”
Responding to a request for comment on Wednesday, City Manager Jonathan Blanton said that North Carolina “General Statute 132-1.4 indicates that records created for law-enforcement purposes are not a matter of public record to be released, even if (they do) not depict the commission of a crime.
“The city’s official stance,” he said, “is that this footage is not public record nor subject to public display.”
The city’s attorney, T.C. Morphis said Wednesday that “my office is looking into the questions raised last night during the council meeting, but I do not have any additional information (yet).” Morphis is an attorney with the Brough Law Firm in Chapel Hill.
During its next meeting, Hamlet City Council will vote on a revised policy regarding Tsunami camera access, use and password changes.
