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Honolulu Lite
I have met Big Brother and he is me. Sitting at a surveillance camera console in the new Chinatown police station, I zoomed in on a man crossing Hotel Street. The man entered a small market and emerged with a can of beer. I zoomed closer. It was Red Dog beer, at 55 cents a can, a favorite of street dwellers. Using the toggle ball, I had the camera take a wider shot. The man took a swig of the beer and then handed it to his buddy sitting on the sidewalk, wearing a blue football jersey with the number 67. Smile, you’re
FIRST OF TWO PARTS
on candid camera,
ChinatownNot exactly the crime of the century, but it's the kind of thing Chinatown merchants want to get rid of.
Sgt. Les Hite, head of the Community Policing Team, called out to a dispatcher in the next room. Within seconds, a three-wheeled police scooter appeared on my television monitor. "67" handed over his beer to a police officer. The police officer was about to leave when Hite told the dispatcher that another man had a beer stashed under his shirt. On screen, the cop made the man reach behind his back under his shirt and produce the beer. Amazing. Not Robocop but Remote Control Cop.
I felt horrible. Two guys just hanging out having a beer, busted by a humor columnist. Weird. Actually, they weren't busted, but I still felt bad. If not for me fiddling around with the surveillance system, "67" would still have had his ice cold brewsky.
Surveillance cameras have become part of our lives. They are in elevators, at every intersection, overlooking parks and office buildings and now, the all-seeing eyes are in Chinatown and Waikiki. Cameras are able to track activities from South Hotel to River to Pauahi to Smith streets. Although the Chinatown merchants requested the cameras to help keep the area safe, not everyone feels good about the loss of privacy in return for security. Including Sgt. Hite.
"Being born and raised here, and being part Hawaiian, I don't like it," he said. "We have the aloha spirit. No other state does. It's sad to say we have to put cameras on the street to protect us."
THESE are state-of-the-art digital cameras, hidden in glass globes, looking like nothing more than street lights. But they are powerful. I zoomed in so close, I could clearly see photographs a man on the sidewalk held in his hand.
It's a strange feeling following people who are unaware they are being watched, even though signs throughout Chinatown announce the cameras presence. Through a surveillance camera, everyone looks sinister. And you see things you wish you hadn't, like a lot of scratching and picking at various body parts.
But the cameras also have caught drug dealers and prostitutes and provided irrefutable evidence of criminal activity.
I left the police station and walked up Hotel Street. I caught up with "67" at River Street. I asked him if he knew he had been drinking directly under a surveillance camera. To my surprise, he said yes. He swayed a little, his breath smelled more like dead dog than Red Dog.
"They're just doing their jobs," he said.
Why didn't he just drink somewhere where there were no cameras? He smiled.
"Too far from the store," he said.
(Wednesday: Police seeking a few good
volunteers to man the cameras.)
Charles Memminger, winner of
National Society of Newspaper Columnists
awards in 1994 and 1992, writes "Honolulu Lite"
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Write to him at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, 96802
or send E-mail to charley@nomayo.com or
71224.113@compuserve.com.
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