Eye in the sky

The Chron's features staff takes an amusing look at surveillance cameras today in light of HPD Chief Harold Hurtt's call for citywide cameras. As the paper notes, Metro already has cameras focused on Main Street, so writer Lana Berkowitz decided to monitor one and see what went down. She watched the view from the cam at Main and McKinney for an hour, and she didn't see any suspicious goings-on — or did she? Some selections from her log:

10:19: Guy in white shorts dashes to the MetroRail platform. (His physical description matches those of several men on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list.)

10:24: A little kid walks by with an adult (no doubt scam artists looking for their next mark).

10:40: Man with white shopping bag talks to leaner, who points toward the MetroRail stop. The man walks the other way. (This is reminiscent of a diversion ploy often used by the Mafia.)

10:42: Man with a briefcase shows extra respect for the rail lines by looking both ways several times. (He must be carrying something explosive.)

10:46: Man with tie blown over his shoulder stands near leaner and talks on cell phone. (He looks like someone 24's Jack Bauer would kill.)

Humor aside, the article does answer a couple of Houstonist's questions: Zooming in on the images allows you to see people, but not facial expressions, and "sometimes it's hard to distinguish gender." Metro uses its cameras to monitor traffic, not crime, though if operators see a crime occurring they'll let police know. Even so, camera watcher Melvyn Henry said he's only seen one incident that led him to call the cops since he started working for Metro six years ago; the control room staff has filed no more than five reports with the police in the past few years, Henry said.

(The photo, by the way, was taken from Main and McKinney, but not by a surveillance camera.)