Today’s Boston Marathon will involve unprecedented levels of security. Knapsacks and large bags are not allowed near the finish line. Tactical units are on hand, canine units have been deployed and new security cameras watch over the crowds.
At a Congressional oversight hearing last May, former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said these steps were needed to effectively monitor future acts of terrorism.
"Do we have to look at cameras? Sure we do. Do we have to look at more bomb dogs? Do we have to look at utilizing the assets that the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Government have provided us? We do have to do that, and it's really important," Davis said.
Today, law enforcement will not be short of anything on the former commissioner's list, especially video surveillance, which was key in identifying the bombing suspects. In fact, as you walk along bustling Boston streets, you might notice a new, shiny camera hovering 15 to 20 feet above at various points along the alphabetized column of roads.
Rick Barrett is a Boston-based security camera specialist and one of the first names that pops up in a Google search of his profession. He takes me on a quick tour along Boylston Street, along the route where Boston Police Commissioner William Evans told me, "We’ll have eyes on everybody no matter where they are."
Barrett points out that the cameras are just like your eyes, "so if you were up there and that was your head right there, what would you see? You would see faces, clothing, bags, cars, runners, pedestrians, and perhaps someone up to no good."
As I stand on the corner of Hereford and Boylston with Barrett, we see what looks like might be a PTZ camera on the corner. Barrett explains that a PTZ is short for Pan Tel Zoom, and it can be controlled from a monitor with a joystick. I ask Barrett what kind of advantage this device has.
"Well, you can watch crowds move. You can zoom in and out of things," Barrett explained. "But it’s got to be manned. It’s not something that just sits by itself."
More than one hundred security cameras have been installed along this section of the marathon route and other parts of the Back Bay, according to the Boston Police.
"We have quite a few more this year. We had plenty last year as we captured Boylston Street and you saw what happened. We've got the latest technology out there and we have quite a few more this year. I'm very comfortable with the plan," said Police Commissioner William Evans.
The man who has installed many of these cameras is Mark Savage of Lantel Communication. He’s busy connecting wires at the corner of Boylston Street, but takes a moment to talk about the work.
"Security cameras are all the way down. We've installed a bunch of wireless and wired cameras. You have a couple on the street here, there's one right on the corner, there's one here, there's gonna be one on that pole, so this is our Red Zone, if you will. We've been putting in cameras all throughout the system." Savage said.
As Rick Barrett, my camera specialist guide along Boylston Street, points out one of the devices installed by Mark Savage and the crews from Lantel, even he—with a good reputation and many years of experience in the camera technology business—did not notice a slew of hidden cameras that may be focused on anyone right now. As we took a look at a more obvious traffic camera, Barrett explains that camera surveillance can only do so much.
"It seems like it's been there for awhile. That might be catching license plates coming out of there. License plates are very difficult to get. People think you can get them very easily, like CSI or something, you can zoom in and get the DNA off the license plate, too," he said.
Mark Savage has installed several cameras, and he says you just have to know where to look. But where to look may not always be obvious.
"In places that you probably would not be looking up at. We’ve used some private businesses that have allowed us to place in some locations up high," Savage explains. "We have camera locations that blend in with surrounding poles to almost make them look covert. So, yeah, there’s a lot of stuff that you don’t see," he explained.
How do Bostonians and visitors to the city feel about that? There are mixed reactions from people I spoke with on the street.
"With the level of police that you have here in the cities of the U.S., there is always somebody close by to react to an incident," said one visitor from Denmark, who didn't see the usefulness of more cameras.
"I think it's a good idea, especially with the way the community was affected last year," said Rianna Sterns. She had left the race just before the bombings last year.
Chelsea Padanno said we need more than just cameras to improve our security. "Social reform needs to happen more than more cameras. The whole thing was committed by an extremist, and I don't think they're necessarily worried about how many eyes are watching, y'know? They're extremists. They're going to go to the extreme," she said.
The most surprising voice, in this story at least, belongs to Rick Barrett, the security camera specialist and a critic of the escalating security camera monitoring in this area.
"To start putting cameras around and watching people…it's not good news. I mean, it's good for the city to know what's going on and watch things more closely, but 'invasion of privacy' will probably be a big issue with a lot of citizens….I don't mind putting them in the city, but the citizens aren't going to want that. That's not something you need. You don't need to be walking up and down the street and be seen everywhere," Barrett said.
Whether the dozens of new electronic eyes hovering above the Back Bay makes you feel uneasy or comforted may be a moot point. With the bombings of April 15, 2013 lingering like a ghost alongside every security decision, these video monitors are probably etched long term into Boston's future, providing plenty of work for Mark Savage.
"They’re going to be permanent," Savage said of the cameras he was installing. "So the city will be able to shuffle them, based on assessment. If the powers that be in Boston Police HQ decide that there's a hot spot somewhere, we can always shuffle them. That's the point of what we call 'quick deploy' cameras, so we can take them down and move them to another location very easily."
In other words, these eye could be watching you under other circumstances that law enforcement officials deem necessary to prevent possible danger, but you won’t always know there is a camera present. Police say, that’s the point.
