Cameras useful to prosecutors

Listen to this article

Almost two years after the Rochester City Council voted unanimously to install police video surveillance cameras in February 2008, the cameras installed on city streets are yielding evidence for criminal prosecutions, attorneys said this week.
The cameras make electronic digital recordings that are stored for 30 days and then automatically erased, unless they have been requested.
To establish a foundation for admitting the images as evidence, attorneys must show that a camera was operating properly and recorded images as they appeared that day, and that the images have not been altered, Kelly Wolford, chief of appeals for the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office, said.
So far, surveillance evidence has been relatively unchallenged, she said.
The city has received less than half a dozen requests for surveillance video or images to be used in criminal or civil cases, attorney Igor Shukoff, of the city’s corporation counsel, said.
But prosecutors also cited a few cases in which the video already has made a difference.
Although attorneys reached Thursday could not immediately identify a single
crime captured by one of the pole cameras, images are being used to corroborate or refute witness testimony.
Images from a street camera helped win a conviction in the case of a fatal stabbing at 484 E. Main St., Assistant District Attorney David Dys said.
After a Sept. 28, 2008 fatal stabbing in the apartment building, a woman saw the defendant run out and get into a car. She recognized the vehicle in an image from the surveillance video, and Eric Ford ultimately was convicted of first-degree manslaughter in March 2009.
“It’s our feeling that jurors like to hear not only testimony, but any physical evidence that we have to back up what they’re saying,” Dys said. “Here was video surveillance of the very vehicle the witness was talking about. I think it did play an important role.”
Surveillance video also was presented as evidence in the July trial of two men charged in a drive-by shooting on Joseph Place.
The camera captured the car turning onto Joseph Avenue from Joseph Place, immediately after the shooting occurred on Joseph Place on Nov. 5, 2008. One defendant, Chazerae Burnice, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault prior to trial and the other, Mohamed Diallo, was acquitted of the shooting charges.
Even though the video evidence did not lead to a conviction, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Schwartz said it was useful, nevertheless.
“It was very useful. It was certainly one more tool that we as prosecutors could use when presenting a case to a jury,” Schwartz said. “In this particular case, the camera was not close enough to identify the person getting in and out of the car, and did not show the incident itself.”
Attorney James Wolford, a partner in The Wolford Law Firm LLP, said the cameras are useful only if they are operating properly. He said he handled a civil case involving an auto accident, which the surveillance camera recorded — but the images were too grainy to be of use.
“It’s not that clear at night. I can’t tell you that you could see the license plates, but you can definitely see the car,” Wolford said.
Wolford wrote a column for the June 5, 2008 edition of The Daily Record that argued such surveillance systems present a significant threat to individual privacy and may not be all that effective in deterring crime.
Prosecutors are using surveillance images more and more, Wolford said Thursday. Federal law enforcement agents also use the cameras proactively in their investigations. Investigators have included the images to support ex parte motions for search warrants and phone tapping warrants, he said.
State Sen. Joseph Robach said residents in high-crime areas are happy to have the cameras. Robach secured state grant funding of $150,000 toward the estimated $2 million cost of starting the project in fiscal 2007-2008.
“While not a total cure, people feel that they’re a helpful tool to getting crime off their streets,” Robach said. “In the City of Rochester, people still are very concerned with crime, and like to have those cameras backed up with a strong police presence.”
— [email protected]