Starting next week, the State College Police Department will begin to train Penn State student auxiliary officers to monitor the surveillance cameras in Beaver Canyon.

The live surveillance will go into effect Aug. 25, nearly two months after its initial proposed start date of July 1.

The plan calls for live monitoring of the cameras during peak weekend hours: Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.

"Our goal is to have them up and running monitoring a couple days before students arrive to work out any kinks," said State College police Sgt. Mark Argiro.

In April, the State College Borough Council voted to proceed with a plan to monitor the existing surveillance cameras installed on 200 to 300 blocks of East Beaver Avenue in September 2003. The monitoring plan was proposed to Borough Council by the CCTV Citizens Advisory Committee, which was formed to gauge the effectiveness of the cameras for a year after their installations.

State College Police Chief Tom King said the live monitoring was delayed for several reasons, including a lack of auxiliary officers available to train in the summer and because a training procedure for the auxiliary officers had to be developed by State College police.

King said 12 student auxiliary officers will learn to use the cameras, beginning with a three-hour training session Aug. 10. However, more students will be trained after the fall semester begins, he said. All trainees will be taught monitoring policy as well as procedures for using the equipment.

Penn State University police officer Diane Grimm said she plans to supervise the students who will monitor the cameras, which will take place at the State College police station in the State College Municipal Building, 243 S. Allen St.

Grimm added that the best auxiliary officers, based on employment history, were chosen for training. Between 12 and 18 students officers, out of about 200, will be trained to monitor the cameras.

"We chose the better folks in the operation," she said.

Off-Campus Student Union President Ryan Bennington said he thinks the cameras will have an impact on crime once they are live monitored instead of their current use as reference after crimes are committed.

"As of now, the cameras are only 50 percent useful," he said. "I think they'll be a lot more useful now to prevent crime downtown."

However, State College Borough Council President Tom Daubert said that while the cameras might catch early signs of a fight, he does not think the cameras will prevent sexual assaults.

"I really don't think it's going to prevent rapes ... these people know cameras are there; most of these problems occur in the western part of campus," Daubert said.

Grimm said that if auxiliary officers observe a crime occurring, they should notify a State College police officer by radio, who will investigate the report of suspicious activity just as they would if they were on patrol.

King said one of the cameras still has to be moved to Calder Way. He added that police are still attempting to determine the most effective position for the camera. It should be moved and operating by the end of the month.

"It's a matter of trying to locate the best place to put it that'll give us the best view of Calder Way," King said.

State College Mayor Bill Welch said he doesn't expect the cameras to affect student behavior because students don't care about the cameras, and will be unaware of when they are monitored.

"I doubt it will make a dime's worth of difference," Welch said.