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New map allows users to report and view the location of security cameras. Some have raised privacy concerns.

(Videosurveillance.com/communitycam)

A Portland-area company has created a website that lets people view reported locations of now-ubiquitous surveillance cameras, including tens of thousands of the devices some estimates put in downtown Portland.

VideoSurveillance.com's initiative, dubbed CommunityCam, allows the public to map and view the location of public and private cameras throughout the city.

The effort is just getting started, with about 2,000 cameras reported in and around Oregon. The company said it’s a launch toward letting residents tap into the wealth of video information to get a simple heads-up on the location of a security camera that may have captured a car break-in or some other criminal event.

The issue raises troubling privacy concerns for some, who say unchecked use of cameras can lead to warrantless tracking of almost anyone. Not only could privacy rights be easily violated, they say, but also such access would open a dangerous door to virtual stalking.

However, support for constant monitoring of public places is quickly gaining popularity. A new poll conducted by The New York Times and CBS News shows a majority of Americans are comfortable with being watched by a phalanx of surveillance cameras when they are in public.

Proponents argue that cameras provide tools for individuals to solve crimes committed against them and their property that police don’t have the time or resources to pursue. In the recent Boston Marathon bombings, such cameras proved hugely valuable in quickly identifying the suspects.

“There are certainly some who will say that Big Brother has finally arrived, but that is definitely not the intent,” said Josh Daniels, VideoSurveillance.com’s founder. “We are simply providing a tool that allows people to do research after a criminal incident occurs.”

CommunityCam does not provide direct access to any video footage, and it doesn’t claim footage-seekers will be able work with private or public entities to obtain video. Nor does it guarantee that the cameras mapped at various points are actually working, are pointed in any particular direction or even are accurately reported.

Instead, Daniels said, it simply gives people scanning the website the knowledge that a camera might have captured a particular moment of time.

“This is all very new, but it’s based on the idea that these cameras can also be used for public good,” he said. “That alone strikes us as being worth the effort.”

Cameras everywhere

The locations of the nearly 2,000 cameras statewide have been reported — through a function known as crowdsourcing — by site users who map them.

Of those, 1,127 are in Portland, mostly peppering the downtown core. Salem weighs in with 424 camera locations. Another 40 have been mapped around Corvallis.

Daniels thinks that’s only scratching the surface and the actual number is much higher.

Daniels, 42, founded VideoSurveillance.com in 2009 as a way to grab some of the exploding market for surveillance devices of all types. He attended public school in Portland before enrolling in the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, later obtaining an MBA from Stanford University.

His company specializes in selling the latest in surveillance equipment and in consulting with businesses and homeowners about which systems may work best for them.

On a recent trip to Las Vegas, Daniels proved that things that happen in Las Vegas most certainly are recorded in Las Vegas. In slightly more than two days, he spotted and mapped more than 300 security cameras.

David Fidanque, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, called after-the-fact public access to private surveillance video footage “a great idea.”

“If it can help solve crime,” Fidanque said, “I’m all for it.”

He then added a huge cautionary note, comparing the explosion of fixed-location security cameras to the possible use of pilotless drones to watch civilians from the skies.

“What’s really worrisome is that, as we move into a surveillance society, our laws haven’t kept pace with the technology,” he said. “Not even close.”

He is concerned, for example, that specific locations of many publicly placed cameras, such as those near bus stops and MAX stations, remain undisclosed.

By piecing together footage from enough cameras, police theoretically could track someone throughout the city, regardless of whether a warrant had been obtained, he said.

Similarly, an estranged spouse, under the guise of being a crime victim, could seek video from private cameras to virtually stalk a former partner.

“Just because someone is in a public place doesn’t mean there is no right to privacy,” Fidanque said. “There is a right to privacy in terms of your movements.”

Hard to get

Obtaining the footage from a surveillance camera, however, may not prove easy, at least for a member of the public.

Such a request would be turned down flat by TMT Development, one of Portland’s larger commercial property-management companies.

“If we receive that sort of request from law enforcement, we would be happy to turn over any footage,” said Vanessa Sturgeon, company president. “Otherwise, no.”

Other business owners say the same thing, adding that taking the time to respond to multiple requests would tax employees’ time and resources.

CommunityCam was partly inspired by SafeCam, the Philadelphia Police Department’s internal database of private security cameras.

Police in other cities are now picking up on the same concept in developing public-private partnerships that are separate from CommunityCam.

In San Diego, private property owners can let police have access codes to tap into their cameras, in real time, to give officers arriving at a possible crime scene direct feeds to better assess threats they face once inside a building.

“If an armed robbery is called in and no one from inside is communicating with us, we could click onto their cameras from inside our patrol cars to see what’s happening,” said Lt. Kevin Mayer, a San Diego police spokesman. “That could be a tremendous benefit.”

The Portland Police Bureau is paying attention to what other jurisdictions are doing but has no plans to increase surveillance through the use of cameras.

“We watched what happened in Boston and realized that an awful lot of very good information may be available from security cameras,” said Sgt. Pete Simpson, a bureau spokesman. “It showed that there are cameras everywhere now, which I think most people realize.”

That same realization, he added, can be troubling to some.

“What makes people who are outside of law enforcement nervous is government’s ability to access and use that information,” said Simpson, who was not aware of CommunityCam when contacted by a reporter. “For now, we’re just watching to see how this all evolves.”