Shield Technology Installed on Brookline's Police Surveillance Cameras

Brookline's 11 police surveillance cameras are now equipped with shield technology meant to make it easier for citizens to tell whether they're active or not.

The long-promised "eyelids" were among the concessions offered by Brookline Police to help ease privacy concerns raised by civil liberties advocates last year. Police have also agreed to activate the cameras only during nighttime hours, expect under certain emergency conditions.

The is based on a remotely operated eyelid that physically closes around a camera when it is not active. The shields, which are housed in clear plastic bubbles around the cameras, are visible from the street and indicated whether a camera is in use.

"Protecting the safety and privacy of Brookline's citizens is of the utmost importance to town officials, so we needed a solution that would satisfy both of these concerns," Scott Wilder, the technology director for the Brookline Police Department, said in a press release.

Wilder said the last eyelid was installed on a camera near Route 9 and High Street in early September.

The surveillance cameras were purchased with a grant from the Homeland Security Department and received fierce criticism from privacy advocates when they were rolled out in 2008. Opposition to the program largely petered out after the cameras were used a widely publicized rape investigation last year.

Under a policy adopted in September 2009, the Brookline Police Department is only allowed to operate the cameras from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., except in certain circumstances. New York-based contractor called SituCon Systems installed a "masking technology" for the system in January to limit the cameras to night time use, and had been working to customize, test and develop the external "eyelids" since then.

SituCon President Seth Cirker has said Brookline would be the first community to use the technology on street-side cameras, though it has been widely used in the Los Angeles schools system and in many municipal buildings in Marshfield, MA. Cirker said he'd like Brookline to serve as a model for communities looking to balance the twin concerns of public safety and privacy when dealing with surveillance cameras.