Cameras

This historic town, where America's founding fathers plotted during the Revolution and Milton Hershey later crafted his first chocolates, now boasts another distinction. It may become the nation's most closely watched small city. Some 165 closed-circuit TV cameras soon will provide live, round-the-clock scrutiny of nearly every street, park and other public space used by the 55,000 residents and the town's many tourists.

When producer John Wells was preparing to shoot his crime drama "Southland," he chose a digital camera that few had heard of a few years ago. The Red One was inexpensive, easy to use and enthusiastically endorsed by his friend and director Steven Soderbergh, who used it to film his two-part movie last year about Che Guevara. Wells was so taken with the Red camera that he even used it to film the final six episodes of "ER." That was a blow to Panavision Inc.

Lawmakers blocked a proposal Tuesday to allow Beverly Hills police officers to use cameras to catch speeders, saying it would put collecting fines above stopping dangerous drivers. State Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) had written legislation for a test program in which Beverly Hills officers would hold a camera triggered by a radar gun that would record speeders. Tickets would be mailed to violators. But the Senate Transportation Committee deadlocked 5 to 5 on the bill. Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach)

Metrolink engineers are now being recorded by video cameras in all of the commuter rail agency's locomotives. Installation of the cameras comes in response to the deadly 2008 rail crash in Chatsworth that apparently involved a distracted engineer. "Metrolink becomes the first rail system in the entire nation, passenger or freight, to install and operate these cameras," Metrolink Board Chairman Keith Millhouse said at a morning news conference Monday at the agency's maintenance facility near Elysian Park.

Think of it as the digital camera for the lonely. Samsung unveiled a camera Thursday with a view screen on the front as well as on the back. And why would people want this DualView camera, as Samsung calls it? To take pictures of themselves. "The growing popularity of social networking sites has given rise to the self-portrait," Samsung said in its news release, "with many consumers turning their digital cameras on themselves." Many who have used social networking or dating sites can relate to holding a camera at arm's length in front of themselves while snapping a picture.

Three years ago, the Los Angeles Police Department installed surveillance cameras in MacArthur Park, leading to a significant drop in gang activity and drug dealing in an area long considered a hotbed of crime. But as the City Council today considers adding new cameras near the park, police officials concede that much of the existing equipment isn't working and that they don't have the money to properly maintain it. "Some of the cameras work and some do not," said LAPD Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz.

Beverly Hills Police Lt. Michael Hines knows the sinking feeling officers get when they pull someone over for speeding only to see other drivers go roaring past. He can't be everywhere at once. The dozen traffic officers who patrol this wealthy burg say they've watched it happen for years. While they work the city's busier streets, motorists are short-cutting on quiet residential roads, often tearing along in what Hines calls "wonderfully high-performance vehicles." Scottsdale, Ariz.

Automated speed and red-light cameras might be catching traffic scofflaws, but they're also busting police rushing to respond to emergencies, a union representing District of Columbia officers says. The officers are spending months writing letters in an attempt to get out of the tickets from the cameras, which snap pictures of speeders and those running red lights, said Kristopher Baumann, chairman of the D.C. chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police.

After years of misfires and false starts, the Los Angeles Police Department is finally on the verge of installing digital video cameras in the first 300 of its patrol cars -- those used by officers in the South Bureau. A test of four competing systems has led Police Chief William J. Bratton to recommend a contract with IBM Corp. for the first phase of a program that will eventually have the cameras installed in all 1,600 patrol cars citywide.

The Police Commission agreed Tuesday to a one-week delay in a plan to select IBM to install video cameras in 300 patrol cars. Another bidder, Panasonic, questioned whether there were hidden costs in its competitor's proposal. The bidding rules require the Police Department to hold a hearing on the protest by Tuesday, when the contract proposal will be back before the commission.