ACTIVISTS EYE DOWNTOWN CAMERAS

Hookers, Drugs Spur Demand For City Surveillance

Stephanie Strudwick stands at the corner of Bank and Somerset streets
in downtown Ottawa, pointing to the "trouble spots" where she is
lobbying the city to install surveillance cameras.

"Anybody who does not live downtown has no idea what we put up with,"
says Strudwick, chairwoman of the group Concerned Citizens for Safer
Neighbourhoods.

Strudwick started a Neighbourhood Watch program in the area last
winter, the day after her door was kicked in and her Lebreton Flats
home looted.

"I knocked on 79 doors that day," she recalls. "We find needles in
our parks, used condoms lying there when the snow melts, prostitutes
wailing in the middle of the night that they need crack. People that
expect us just to sit back and take this are just nuts, because we're
not going to."

Strudwick has been calling on City Hall to install a closed-circuit
television (CCTV) monitoring system in Ottawa's trouble spots. The
idea is not without precedent -- Hamilton credits its CCTV system for
drastic reductions in street-level crime in the last two years.

While some are concerned about the idea of being under constant
Orwellian surveillance, the movement is picking up supporters.

Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes has called a community safety
meeting for tonight, where Strudwick expects CCTV to be a hot topic.
The meeting is not open to the public.

"There will be a lot of different reactions," says Strudwick.
"There's a lot of people who don't like Big Brother watching them.

Bedard On Board

"But this is about getting rid of the drug dealing and the violence.
As long as you're not doing anything illegal and have nothing to
hide, why would you be worried?"

Coun. Georges Bedard, whose Rideau-Vanier ward tops the Ottawa police
hot list for criminal activity, supports the idea of installing
cameras in locations such as the Rideau Centre.

"We've had a lot of drug activity in the area, so if we could capture
this on some sort of video system, I think it would reduce the amount
of criminal activity," he says.

"Whenever there is criminal activity, at least we could nail the
proper people."

Taxpayers would foot the bill for the installation, monitoring and
maintenance of the cameras, which Bedard says would pay for themselves.

According to Bedard, several similar systems have already been
installed in the city, which he credits for reductions in
street-level crime, vandalism and complaints to police.

'Value For Money'

Bedard sees the project expanding to include the Rideau Centre and
nearby Colonel By Drive underpass, where Steven Beriault, a
21-year-old homeless man, was stabbed to death last summer.

"If we continue on a gradual basis, I think there will be value for
money there," says Bedard.