Don't smile -- you're not on Canyon Camera just yet.
Three surveillance cameras were placed along Beaver Avenue at the intersections of McAllister Street, Locust Lane and Hiester Street over the summer, but are not yet operational because the project is behind schedule.
On May 5, Wacor Electronics of Huntingdon was awarded the installation contract, which stipulated the project was to be completed in 90 days.
"I wanted [the cameras] working by the time students returned and I'm disappointed," State College Police Chief Tom King said.
Wacor Electronics declined to comment, but King said he hopes cameras will be working as early as today or by Friday at the latest.
Originally, King said he thought cameras might be ready for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. However, the date for completion was later adjusted to Aug. 15 because Wacor Electronics had scheduled several other projects with school districts, King said.
Nearly all of the required hardware, including the cameras, cables and monitors, was in place and ready by the middle of last week, but Wacor Electronics was still working late Friday to make footage transferable from the cameras to the police station, said Mark Whitfield, director of public works.
Work on the project stopped after a piece of equipment needed to finish the job was unavailable, King said.
"We'll be pushing very hard with the company this week to demand the system is up and running by this weekend," King said.
The cameras, which have pan, tilt and zoom capabilities, will capture and record street level footage of the 200 and 300 blocks of East Beaver Avenue and transfer the images via fiber optic cables to monitors in the police station.
Images of lower-level balconies may also be filmed, but the cameras have a special feature that prevents them from recording through glass.
Signs notifying citizens that they are being recorded will be posted as soon as the cameras become fully operational.
King said the cameras will be subject to live monitoring during special events such as home football weekends and the Arts Festival. They could also be checked when police receive a call about a problem in the area.
"It would be very rare that we would have somebody dedicated to monitoring the footage," King said.
Recorded images will be deleted after 14 days unless they are needed for an investigation.
The idea to install cameras was the brainchild of a riot prevention committee formed in the aftermath of three riots in Beaver Canyon between 1998 and 2001.
King said the main reason for the cameras is to protect students. Students voted last spring by a 4-1 ratio against the partial funding in a referendum included on the Undergraduate Student Government election ballot, but Penn State decided to help finance the project anyway.
"I hope they don't work," said Thomas Sabol (sophomore-architectural engineering), who lives in Beaver Canyon. "It's an invasion of privacy. State College is already a safe area. I never felt unsafe."
Soon Kwon (sophomore-telecommunications) also said she doesn't feel safer as a female because sexual assaults do not occur out in the open where cameras will be recording. However, she said she does not see a problem with having cameras in the area around her apartment.
"If you're not doing anything wrong, you shouldn't have a problem with it," Kwon said. "It'll prevent people from doing stupid things like fighting and vandalism."
An advisory committee composed of USG President Ian Rosenberger and Executive Director of the Downtown Improvement District Teresa Sparacino, has determined council members and a member of the police department will review the camera policy and procedures. The policy can be found at www.gov.state-college.pa.us.
