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Mayor Coleman wants to use surveillance cameras to deter crime. The cost of installing them could be shared with businesses, universities and others.

bull; Neighborhood cameras: Neighborhoods would be able to apply for cameras on their streets based on complaints and crime.
bull; Downtown festivals: Cameras, including up to five temporary ones, would monitor major events such as Red, White Boom.
bull; Recreation centers and parks: Coleman wants his staff to examine installing cameras outside centers and in parks.

Soon, you might find the eyes of the city upon you as you walk in your neighborhood, enjoy Red, White Boom or play in a park.
Look up. There might be a city surveillance camera watching your every move.

After months of internal discussion among city officials, and after repeated requests for cameras by neighborhood leaders and residents, Columbus will test video surveillance cameras.
Mayor Michael B. Coleman asked his staff yesterday to develop test programs for cameras to observe neighborhoods and Downtown festivals.

He wants to determine whether they should be placed at recreation centers and parks. Cameras also could be used in the effort to fight gangs and ease truancy.
Coleman said he's looking for another crime-fighting tool, one other cities say has been useful.

"We have not decided whether we'll have an expansive camera program. We'll explore it, pilot it, test it," Coleman said yesterday. "This is no silver bullet against crime, but you have to have an arsenal.

"
Others wonder whether the cameras could intrude on people's privacy.
"None of us wants to be the subject of constant surveillance," said Jeff Gamso, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.
Already, many private businesses have cameras, in Columbus and elsewhere.

So do a lot of cities.
In larger cities such as Chicago and Baltimore, they're as common as street signs and often well-marked to let people know they're being watched.
Smaller cities also have them.

Charleston, W.Va., has two.

As Columbus looks at putting them at recreation centers and parks, Cleveland already plans to spend $200,000 to install surveillance cameras at four recreation centers, said Michael E. Cox, Cleveland's parks and recreation director. Two youths, ages 11 and 16, were shot to death outside a Cleveland center two years ago, he said.

this year's capital budget.
"People want to come to an environment and feel safe and secure," Tyson said.
South Side community leader Debera Diggs has talked to the mayor about cameras.

She'd like to see them everywhere.
man robbed and killed outside the Blueberry Hill bar. Police arrested four suspects after TV stations aired the video and the parents of one suspect recognized him in the video.

That video captured Coleman's attention, too.
The city won't push cameras on neighborhoods, Coleman said.
If residents don't want the cameras, they won't get them, he said.

But some already have taken their own steps, including German Village, where residents put up three fake cameras this winter to deter crime.
Coleman said he has to find the money for cameras -- there's none in the budget now. Federal grants are a possibility, as is money from the Homeland Security Department, although Coleman thinks that's less likely.

Coleman's staff and safety officials have debated camera costs and privacy issues, said Mike Brown, Coleman's spokesman.
But Columbus already has had some experience with surveillance cameras. Last year, Keep Columbus trash illegally.

neighborhoods and the tourist-filled Inner Harbor area, police say.
Most cameras are clearly marked, usually mounted on poles in boxes bearing the Baltimore police logo and a flashing blue light.
Chicago uses its cameras to fight "gangs, guns and drugs," police spokesman Patrick Camden said.

Money taken from criminals pays for the cameras.
Last year, in a nonbinding ballot issue, Philadelphia voters agreed to surveillance cameras by 4-1. The city has since installed 18 cameras.

In areas where police monitor 10 cameras, crime is down 25 percent to 30 percent, said Thomas Lippo, who leads the city's 911 system.
But the ACLU's Gamso wonders at what cost.
"If I'm the government, I'd be very happy to know where everyone is at all times," Gamso said.

He also questions whether they're worth the money.
"Are there better ways to go about crime prevention?" he said.

Diggs said, "If you're doing the right thing, you have nothing to hide."
The Coleman administration still has to sell City Council on the idea.
"I've pledged to keep an open mind," said Councilman Andrew Ginther, who leads the council's safety committee.

Neighborhoods would have to support it first, Ginther said. And, he said, the city has to address privacy concerns.