The Beaver Canyon cameras have yet to be used for identifying unidentified criminals, but they have been used to corroborate witnesses' accounts of particular incidents.

The surveillance cameras were installed in September, but it is still unknown whether they are helping to deter crime downtown.

A citizens advisory committee will meet in March to discuss a cost estimate and the progress of the downtown cameras, State College Police Chief Tom King said.

Undergraduate Student Government (USG) President Ian Rosenberger is one of the members of the advisory committee but did not attend the past two meetings.

"To be honest, I haven't heard anything about whether the cameras are helping to deter crime downtown or not," he said.

Until the committee can give State College Borough Council members statistics on crime in Beaver Canyon compared to those before the cameras were installed, it is hard to say whether they are helping, council member James Meyer said.

"We wanted to wait a year to gather data on the rise or fall of crime downtown since the installation," King said. "In September, the committee will put together a full statement on the progress of the cameras."

King said the cameras have been used to support evidence the department already has in certain cases.

"The cameras have helped to collaborate with the stories from people and see what had happened," King said.

The three cameras were installed along Beaver Avenue at the intersections with Hiester Street, Locust Lane and McAllister Street.

Rosenberger said he was against the idea of having cameras downtown from the beginning.

"I didn't think that they were necessary; people are always better than machines," he said.

In a referendum vote on April's USG election ballot, students voted against the surveillance cameras by a 4-to-1 ratio.

Bob Hughes (senior-science), who lives in Cedarbrook, 320 E. Beaver Ave., said he doesn't think the cameras near his apartment complex are reducing criminal activity.

"There are so many people in the Canyon Pizza area that they aren't going to catch anyone," Hughes said. "Not all the people out there are students, and they are going to take off after something happens anyway."

There has been no vandalism to the cameras since installation, King said.

But the camera located on the corner of Hiester Street and Beaver Avenue was damaged in a hit-and-run accident Oct. 4. The camera was sent back to the manufacturer, Wacor Electronics, and remounted a little over a month later.