‘Smart Park’ Is Keeping Watch

To civic planners in Glendale, Palmer Park has everything a recreation area needs -- kiddie swings, walking trails and infrared sensors concealed in the shrubbery.

If someone scales the fence after the park closes at 10 p.m., more than a dozen electronic sentries whirl into action.

One foot on the manicured lawn triggers the sprinklers, while the sensors set off alarms at the park rangers’ headquarters.

The tops of the fence curve inward to prevent escape, leaving the intruder trapped and, presumably, wet.

Glendale officials have touted Palmer as a “smart park,” and although the technology may be more advanced than in other parks, the idea of high-tech monitoring is catching on.

In April the Pico Rivera City Council agreed to place 33 cameras at five parks and a city building to snare taggers.

Los Angeles officials, under orders from Mayor James K. Hahn to clean up the parks, are having monitoring devices installed in some crime-plagued recreation centers.

The first cameras will be installed Wednesday at Central Recreation Center near USC.

Opinions vary about whether this is a good idea.

On a recent afternoon at Palmer Park, several patrons said they were pleased that the devices were in place.

“For me, it’s OK,” said Ethel Medina, when told of the electronic sentries. “It’s for our safety. At night, we don’t know who will try to vandalize the place.”

But Mischa Kopitman, who immigrated to the United States from Russia 12 years ago, said the security equipment reminds him of his native country.

“A lot of people around the world think the United States is very progressive,” he said.

“But it’s a lot more conservative than anyone would expect. You think you will find freedom, but you find an amazing amount of restrictions.”

Some planning experts also say the gadgetry is too intrusive, evoking the image of “Big Brother.”

“Parks were the ultimate public spaces at one time,” said Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, chairwoman of UCLA’s urban planning department.

“I’m worried that, in trying to address issues of security, we are ending up with parks that may not be exactly public.”

Louise Mozingo, an associate professor in UC Berkeley’s department of landscape architecture and environmental planning, said the best way to ensure that parks stay safe is to make them “well-used and well-loved.”

“No camera is ever going to do that,” she said. “One of the things we have always prided ourselves on in this country is freedom of movement and freedom from observation. All this seems perilously close to an invasion of privacy.”

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A Trade-Off for Safety

Scott Reese, assistant director of Glendale’s Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department, defends the use of the James Bond-type equipment, calling it a reality of urban life -- especially after 9/11.

“It’s not just happening in parks,” he said. “It’s all public spaces.... People are willing to accept the trade-off to have the feeling of being more safe and secure.”

Reese said he was recently in Europe, where surveillance cameras are being installed in a wide variety of public venues.

Officials estimate that there are more than 1 million closed-circuit cameras watching people in Britain. According to a BBC report, each person in London is viewed by more than 300 cameras on a typical day.

“9/11 changed the whole world,” Reese said.

Even before the terrorist attacks, however, Glendale officials were searching for ways to make sure their city retained its reputation as one of the nation’s safest.

Palmer Park, which needed renovation, became a testing ground in 1996 when the city hired a landscape architect and a security consultant with one purpose in mind -- to create a safe park.

Previously, the three-acre facility, in an area dominated by apartment complexes, had problems with graffiti. Occasionally, gardeners would find empty beer cans scattered about the playground.

“Once you lose control of an area, whether it is a parking lot, a park or a shopping center, it develops a reputation,” Reese said.

“Once a reputation is established, it is very hard to change that reputation. Even though something may be safe, people pick up the perception it is not. We say it over and over again: Perception becomes reality.”

With a budget of $1.1 million, the city’s first step was to encircle the park with an 8-foot-high wrought-iron fence.

For added protection, park officials have the ability to install cigar-sized video cameras to photograph intruders -- presumably trapped and waiting to be arrested. (Officials say they have done this only once, in an unsuccessful attempt to catch a tagger.)

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No Telltale Signs

Waist-high posts holding the infrared sensors are either amid the shrubs or in plain view, but there are no signs telling members of the public that they might be watched.

Even so, word has apparently gotten out that the park is no place to be found after dark, Reese said.

Since the renovation, there have been only a couple of incidents. Early on, someone tried to steal a barbecue grill, but couldn’t muscle it over the fence. The would-be thief escaped.

Over the last few years, Reese said, officials have implemented similar, but not quite as extreme, security measures at other parks.

“We’ve learned a lot from this site,” he said. “We may have gone a little overboard with some of the technology that we’ve used here.... We were trying to make a point.”

Shortly after Palmer Park was renovated, Los Angeles parks officials cited the site. At the time, L.A. park planners shunned the use of the monitoring equipment.

Their attitudes toward electronics have since changed. Last year, Hahn said, he was alarmed by an increase in crime at city parks and wanted to improve security.

He brought in Manuel Mollinedo, who was head of the city’s zoo, to tackle the problem as the new chief of the Recreation and Parks Department.

Mollinedo said last week that the city is planning to experiment with cameras at various facilities, and to have the cameras running 24 hours a day.

Mollinedo said officials also are looking at putting in fences at some parks. But he added: “I’m really not sure if that’s what you want to do. Psychologically, it sends a poor message. For the most part, the majority of our parks are safe.”

Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook said Hahn has focused primarily on putting more police officers in the parks.

“Our emphasis has been in the direction of personnel and creating the human resources,” he said.

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Less Costly Deterrent

Security consultant Jim Battersby, who worked with Glendale on Palmer Park, said that an increased police presence is a crucial deterrent but that electronics are less expensive.

“It’s a budget thing,” he said. “It’s great if you have the resources to throw the manpower at it. But what do you do when you pull out the patrols? Electronics will be there long after the people have gone.”

The Pico Rivera council voted unanimously April 21 to spend $31,132 to purchase 33 cameras, which also will be on 24 hours day. Another $16,140 will be allocated annually for operation and maintenance.

The equipment will be installed at Pico, Rio Hondo, Rio Vista, Rivera and Smith parks.

“The cameras will be placed in locations that are difficult to access,” said Assistant City Manager Ann Negendank.

“We’ll review the tapes after each incident. For us, this is a proactive approach for minimizing the damage and minimizing the cost of what we are facing in keeping our facilities graffiti-free.”