Cameras on the coast may present potential invasion of privacy rights.
By Lauren Gustus/Special to the Malibu Times
Who’s watching you now?
A monitoring device, having nothing to do with the post-Sept. 11 Patriot Act that undercut civil liberties but may be just as disconcerting, will soon be operational in Malibu.
And the only hint that someone is keeping an eye on you will be a sign that reads, “For your protection, this area is under remote video surveillance.”
Public beaches in Malibu, and along the 72-mile stretch of coastline in Los Angeles County, will soon be equipped with surveillance cameras, linked to the Internet, under the jurisdiction of county lifeguards.
Already, there has been opposition to the project, with objectors pointing out the “right to privacy” and making reference to the familiar character from George Orwell’s “1984” Big Brother.
The Malibu Times contacted a respected privacy organization based in San Diego to further determine the legitimacy of the project.
“There is no expectation of privacy at a public area such as the beach, so the individual’s right to privacy is not violated,” said Beth Givens, director of the San Diego-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
She further argues that as long as identities cannot be made, there really isn’t a privacy right to be made.
The purpose of the web-cameras, according to Los Angeles County Chief of Lifeguards Mike Frazer, which will post snap shots of beach conditions on the Internet in five-minute intervals, is threefold; they will aid in determining surf size, weather conditions and crowd volume. The county hopes the cameras will better aid beachgoers in planning their days in the sun and chart more efficiently the environmental shifts along the coast. However, the majority of the 27 cameras to be installed will be placed at beaches where there is little or no supervision, so that lifeguards at a central headquarters will be able to monitor beachgoers in remote areas and send out patrols as needed.
Frazer said the cameras would employ a panoramic, wide-angle shot, which should make them incapable of recognizing a person’s features. They have no zoom capacity, so Frazer posits that identifying individuals will be impossible. But once the cameras are installed, Givens warns, their capacity could be augmented.
Although presently the cameras cannot zoom and although there is no recording capability, the situation is not quite picture perfect. Seemingly “low-tech” surveillance equipment can be converted to perform more advanced tasks in the future. And while the tapes will not be recorded for any nefarious purposes such as redistribution, they will be viewed in real time at a central headquarters.
“You literally cannot make out features,” Frazer said, and likened the images on screen to the size of the mark a ballpoint pen would make on a piece of paper.
But Givens advises that citizens of a free country should not get used to being watched.
However, Frazer points to the hundreds of unchecked cameras at beaches in Malibu belonging to private residents as a more serious threat to privacy.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department, Lifeguard Division was awarded a $557,000 grant to purchase and install the Webcams, which should be operational in six months. The cameras and three sets of meteorological instruments will be installed.
The Lifeguard Division will work in conjunction with the University of Southern California’s Sea Grant Program to collect environmental data and better educate the public. According to its Web site, Sea Grant’s general mission is to provide accurate and timely information about coastal resources on which sound decisions can be based.
The snapshots will be used by Sea Grant to better chart sand erosion and other environmental changes.
Chief Frazer bills the cameras as “a full-service benefit to the public.”
Corral Canyon and Nicholas Creek are two potential sites for the cameras in Malibu. Signs will accompany the cameras at each location to inform the public they are under surveillance.
The cameras will be installed three stories above coastline, and they will be able to capture up to two miles of activity, if unobstructed. Special “privacy zones,” which are customizable on each camera, will prevent the cameras from peering into public bathrooms or private residences.
Givens produced one final caution in the case of the beach cameras.
“Webcams on the beach could be the first step,” she said. “What’s next?’ is always a concern.”