Bridge cameras ‘not up to the standards’

The Marco Eagle has learned that the security cameras installed on the Marco Island side of the Judge S.S. Jolley Bridge have not been working properly.

“The bottom line is that the cameras are up there and they are working,” Marco Island Police Chief Roger Reinke said. “They are not up to the specifications that we set out in the contract.”

The goal of the Offender Alert Camera System was to take a photograph of the license plate of every vehicle as it comes on and goes off Marco Island. Once the plate is photographed, the system’s Optical Character Recognition software would compare it to other plates in state and federal databases to see if it’s registered to a criminal or if the vehicle may have been used in a crime.

Reinke didn’t want to talk about the inadequacies of the cameras, fearing that criminals may find out about them. He said the vendor for the project, International Security Network, has a no communication clause with the media due to security concerns.

“Once we get those bugs worked out is when we are going to move to the other bridge,” Reinke said. “I thought we would be done by now and we’re not.”

File photo

Security cameras installed on the Marco Island side of the Judge S.S. Jolley Bridge have not been working properly. The cameras were installed to monitor vehicles belonging to criminals or involved in criminal activity coming onto the island, however, officials remain tight-lipped about exactly how they work.

The Marco Island City Council approved the installation of the cameras at the Jolley Bridge and the Goodland Bridge during a meeting March 6, 2006. Reinke said during the meeting that the staff reduced the cost of the system from $200,000 to a maximum of $125,000. He added that the installation of the cameras would start in May and be finished by June.

The only expenditure that the city has made to the vendor is for the equipment, according to Reinke. No money has been paid for the camera’s software or installation.

“We paid nothing beyond the equipment because they have not reached the goals that we set for them in the contract,” he said.

Reinke added that there are more than two cameras, including a video camera, at the bridge.

He said the MIPD has used the cameras in criminal, traffic crash, missing person and stolen car investigations.

“Just recently, we used them in what we felt was a criminal investigation, but once we identified the car and talked to the people driving it, we found out that they had a legitimate reason for doing what they were doing,” he said.

Reinke didn’t want to talk about how the pictures are monitored.

“We’re not going to reveal that,” he said. “That’s part of the criminal intelligence information and I don’t think criminals have to know how they are monitored.”