The State College Police Department braced itself this weekend for the thousands of incoming students, but this year, the officers had extra help in keeping downtown under control during fall semester move-in weekend.
Aug. 25 marked the first night of live surveillance for the three cameras in Beaver Canyon, and State College Police Chief Tom King said the monitoring has already helped officers reach crime more quickly.
Penn State student auxiliary officers, who will watch the cameras from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. Thursday through Saturday, observed a fight Saturday night on the 300 block of Beaver Avenue while watching the monitors. They immediately notified State College police officers by radio, and they were able to break up the fight, King said.
"That's one example where it could've progressively gotten worse, and more serious injury could have occurred," he said. "It only came to our attention because of someone monitoring it."
King said none of those involved needed hospital treatment, but all three are charged with disorderly conduct or harassment.
In April, the State College Borough Council voted to move forward with a plan to monitor the existing surveillance cameras, which were installed between the 200 and 300 blocks of East Beaver Avenue in September 2003. The monitoring plan was recommended to council by the CCTV Citizens Advisory Committee, which was formed to gauge the cameras' effectiveness.
Although the initial proposed start date for live surveillance was July 1, King said there weren't enough student auxiliary officers this summer to begin the monitoring.
"We needed to wait until we got closer to the start of the semester when we had more staff," he said. "Our goal was to have it started for when students came back, and we achieved that."
State College police began training 12 student auxiliary officers during the second week of August. King said they are rotating the shifts, with one officer monitoring each designated night from the State College police station in the State College Municipal Building, 243 S. Allen St.
Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said the purpose of the cameras is simply to reduce crime, not to invade students' privacy.
"I think the borough has done everything they can to make sure the cameras aren't intrusive and that they're not invading privacy," he said. "The cameras are going to aid police officers, but it's not going to be a final decision with arrests."
Although the cameras may help break up a fight more quickly, Council President Tom Daubert said he remains unconvinced that the live surveillance would help to curb more serious crimes such as sexual assault.
"Who's going to do a serious crime in Beaver Avenue?" he said. "They're going to do it in the back alleys."
In response to student concern and a recommendation from the camera advisory committee, King said police are still attempting to move one of the cameras within a half of a block of the intersection of McAllister Alley and East Calder Way.
"It needs to be able to look up and down Calder Alley," he said. "That's where we've had the most amount of activity."
King said police have met with Allegheny Power to see which pole has appropriate power and cable for the camera. The privately owned businesses in that area have been very supportive of the installation, King said.
Now, he said, it's just a matter of assessing the cost of moving it.
"We need to know exactly which pole we're going to use before they can give a definite price," King said. "It's not a definite thing, but I'm still hopeful that this fall we'll be moving one down there."
