Police chief wants surveillance cameras in Houston apartments

Houston’s police chief proposed Wednesday placing surveillance cameras in apartment complexes, downtown streets, shopping malls, and even private homes as a way of combatting crime with a shortage of police officers.

“I know a lot of people are concerned about Big Brother, but my response to that is if you are not doing anything wrong, why should you worry about it?” Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt told reporters Wednesday at a regular briefing.

Houston is facing a severe police shortage because of too many retirements and too few recruits, and the city has absorbed 150,000 hurricane refugees who are filling apartment complexes in crime-ridden neighborhoods. City Council is considering a public safety tax to pay for more officers.

Hurtt said he believes building permits should require malls and large apartment complexes to install surveillance cameras. And Hurtt said if a homeowner requires repeated police response, he thinks it is reasonable to require camera surveillance of that property.

“If they are putting a burden on the criminal justice system and cheating the other residents of Houston, yes,” he said. “I think people are upset when people are robbed and killed on the streets of Houston.”

Scott Henson, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Police Accountability Project in Texas, called Hurtt’s proposal to require surveillance cameras in building permits “radical and extreme.”

“I didn’t know that building permits included probable cause,” Henson said. “The Fourth Amendment says we have the right to be free from unreasonable searches, and I’m not sure why he thinks that they would be justified in putting people under surveillance without any reason.”

Hurtt said some apartment complexes in Houston have become crime “hot spots” and installing cameras would be less expensive than having officers stationed around the clock.

Houston Mayor Bill White said he hasn’t talked with Hurtt about his idea, but sees it as more of a “brainstorm” than a “decision.”

“I think he is constantly looking for a way to use our taxpayers’ dollars wisely,” White said. “We want to make sure peoples’ right to privacy are protected and we do things that are cost effective.”

White said the cameras are costly, “but on the other hand we spend an awful lot for patrol presence.”

Henson said an ACLU study of London’s extensive use of camera surveillance revealed the cameras help fight crime in targeted areas, such as parking garages, but are less effective in more unrestricted areas.

“Cameras can be defeated with very high tech means, like sunglasses and hats and disguises,” Henson said, laughing. “So it is very easy to thwart the cameras, but if something happens, officers have to watch hours and hours and hours of video. And while they are doing that, they are not investigating crimes.”

Andy Teas with the Houston Apartment Association said he first learned of the police chief’s idea Wednesday and found it intriguing.

“I think a lot of people would appreciate the thought of extra eyes looking out for them,” he said. “Some people would resent what they would consider to be an invasion of their privacy.”

Nearly half of Houston’s 2 million people live in 400,000 apartment units.

“I don’t think that anybody in this room believes we can afford enough police officers to put one on every corner,” the police chief said. “But we can have cameras to relay activity to the authorities so that we can have an appropriate response.”

PAM EASTON / Associated Press