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Home My WebLink AboutTC Agd Pkt 2009-11-18 (2)Summary of communication to staff on cameras - November 2009 SUPPORT CAMERAS Annette McCormack Peninsula Resident Non-Resident Residency Unkno,%vn x Marc Gineris x Name withheld x Bob Benbow x Bob Pritchard x Cathy Benediktsson x Sundra Swanson x Frank Jonelis x Tracy Jonelis x Starrett Delton x Debbie Ward x Melissa Prentis x Carlie Koontz x Douglas Davis x Mary Buich x Aaron Coo erband x Margaret Bannerman x Alan Holroyde x Logan Boles x Chuck Heusser x Linda Haake x Ian Schwartz x Andrew Thompson x Tim Kelly-Markham x Paul Stephens x Jennifer Ringwald x Bruce Lindgren x Linda Warren x PJ Jones x Gary Runes x Patricia Runes x Gayle Dunlap x Bob Dunlap x Curtis Haverty x Susanne Pa ovich x Al Anolik x Kenneth Nemzer x TOTALS 28 5 4 OPPOSE CAMERAS Mindy Canter Peninsula I Resident* X Non-Resident Residency Unknown Matt Turley x Chris Ed ette x Cathy Ed ette X Steve Ed ette X Frieda Ed ette X Richard Smith X Bill Law X Lynn Kanter-Levy X Barbara (no last name given) X Brendan Schultz X Camille Bosworth X C. Moore X Curtis Horne X Chris Vail X Geoffrey Sawyer X Curtis Carter X Roberta Jeffrey X Sophia Merrill X G.M. Hathaway x Richard Ferguson X Lorrie Green X Jennifer Drake X Carol Forell X Ann-Eve Hazen X Marilyn Kandel X Richard Kandel x Sue Morris x Mark Morris x Carol Ollendorff X Tom Ollendorff X Ruth Rozen X Richard Rozen X Donald Share X Rachel Share x Mark Stewart X Quentin Hartman X Richard Smith X Steve Schroeder X Sally Schroeder Mark Swi ert X X Jean Arnold X TOTALS 18 13 11 * 15 names in this column were on a single letter of opposition Alexander and Yami Anolik RECEIVED 280 Round Hill Road Tiburon, CA 94920-0531 NOV 17 2009 (415) 435-0404 TOWN MANAGERS OFFICE November 15, 2009 TOWN OF TIBURON Via Hand Delivery and Electronic Mail to Town Manager Peggy Curran Tiburon City Council 1505 Tiburon Blvd. Tiburon, CA 94920 Re: Tiburon Council Hearing on License Plate Surveillance Protection Date: November 18, 2009 at 7:30pm Our File: 7450-18 Dear Council Members, Since I cannot be in attendance on the 18th, I wish to briefly add additional comments to those I presented to the Council on November 4th during the "free speech" portion of your meeting, since the regular hearing had been postponed. As a security consultant to the travel and tourism industry in that my legal concentration is travel, tourism and hospitality law, and with books and seminars dealing with Preventive Legal Care®, the following comments are analogous to all of us as homeowners in Tiburon and would mirror those offered to my clients and students of the security protection that I have taught over the last 25 years. The basics of security protection is to first assess your risks; second to analyze basic safety precautions; and third to compare the risk management and crisis management protection available and weigh the costs of such protection with its cost effectiveness in achieving maximum protection for the risks assessed. One of our first priorities should be becoming security minded. When we get complacent, thinking it "can't happen here," or worse that "it can't happen to me," some Tiburon residents may not be properly assessing our potential risks. We all utilize basic safeguards at our homes, starting with proper locks, lighting and alarm systems. Simple protections such as Tiburon's program to have our home addresses visible from the street were appreciated when instituted, and we do this as a way of helping our fire and police protection better protect us. Saving and implementing the material the City made available to us as residents in case of natural emergencies was likewise something we could relate to, urging residents to stockpile appropriate water, first aid, an emergency radio device and sufficient food and rations that we might need for our families and needy neighbors in case of a natural emergency. Protecting our home environments should even include measures designed to address risks associated with communicable-disease plans in the event of, for example, a terrorist-inspired outbreak of smallpox or other like disease, and perhaps on a much lesser level potential H 1 N 1 outbreaks. These measures are urged and implemented in an attempt to adjust the attitude of the community to one of cautious awareness and prevention, an awareness that requires evaluating the costs associated with various means of protection and measures one can take to protect our families. None of us should even consider standing by and not seeking and implementing the maximum cost effective protection for ourselves and our families. Electronic technology now makes this available, with cost effectiveness further increased by the fact that CalTrans is benevolently assisting us in Tiburon to lower the costs by allowing us to use the existing poles. Tiburon's natural location on a peninsula make such measures even more practical and cost effective. In my security protection classes to the San Francisco Mounted Sheriff's Unit, of which I am the Commander, we learn first of deterrence in an effort to try and minimize problems facing the community. When "the bad guys" know that they are being filmed in our community and not in others, unless they are already driving a stolen vehicle, they are certainly more likely to avoid the increased risks present in Tiburon when they can just as easy rip off one of our neighboring communities. For those outside of the community and across the United States who may not be informed of this increased security protection in Tiburon, their realization of the affluence of this community and its perception as an easy target for various crimes is a sufficient reason to immediately begin installing the protection your Council has the power to implement. When an incident occurs like the unfortunate homicide that we recently had to deal with, socially for those who knew the victim and morally as part of the community, until we find out what happened we are all simply hoping that it was a random shooting by a crazy individual who is no longer in our community. However, we don't know this, and we must do all that we can to try and follow up all potential leads when such an incident occurs. If something happens to one of our children, an Amber alert helps bring others on the highways awareness of the incident and provides police with valuable leads when a known vehicle is spotted. A citing of a specific type of vehicle at a precise time but without an available license plate number provided from somebody who witnessed a crime can be matched up with our new sophisticated surveillance equipment, instantly allowing thousands of people on the roads to possibly assist law enforcement for an immediate resolution to a crime that could only get worse. Serious crimes that are thought out and planned usually involve surveillance conducted over a period of time, and the ability to put patterns together of license plate numbers that have no connection to our community could be a potential lead in any serious crime. A perpetrator being examined by law enforcement who might have been fortuitously apprehended in some other crime, such as the crazy who blew up the federal building and was apprehended by a state trooper because of a license plate violation, could at least be placed in a crime scene zone in Tiburon where they initially might have denied having even been to Tiburon, and when confronted with a picture of his or her license plate might realize that although circumstantial evidence, when you have enough circumstantial evidence it assists the district attorney in the prosecution of the case. The arguments that I have heard in opposition to the rest of us citizens who want additional protection were over simplistic, often to the extent of, for example, information being used in domestic relation cases to identify where somebody is. Our state has been a no fault dissolution state for many years, and looking at the additional arguments presented, none of them outweigh my right to be protected in my city by the most cost effective means available. Assisting law enforcement throughout California and throughout the country is something that we in law enforcement appreciate as an obligation. We share information, and we expect others to share with us. A heinous crime elsewhere with a lead that the perpetrator was in the Marin County area could immediately be electronically verified, and showing this kind of cooperation allows our police force to live up to their code of protection to both this community and the profession. A recent California Court of Appeals case that I have been asked to comment on internationally and by numerous media involves the ability of Homeland Security to take any electronic devise of a person requesting entry into the country, whether it be a laptop, PDA, or telephone, and completely download and even hold them until inspected, over the outcries of numeroi.ls alleged civil rights protectors. This includes attorneys screaming confidential attorney client communications located in the laptops, drug dealers not interested in sharing their business contacts throughout the world, and in the case brought before the Court of Appeals a pedophile with obvious inappropriate photos on his laptop. In ruling, our most liberal California 91h Circuit of Appeals recognized that we are today facing increased threats including the threat of international terrorism and domestically, with economic issues, we are facing a rise in both drug and economic related crimes. People have a right to protect themselves, a fact that the Supreme Court has recently held in upholding our Second Amendment right to bear arms. If these liberal courts can weigh the cost effectiveness of certain types of electronic surveillance against the protections afforded by our great Constitution and conclude that people must and need be protected, I would ask you the Council to help us protect ourselves and our community by immediately voting to install all appropriate surveillance. Respectfully Yours, Alexander Anolik 280 Round Hill Road Page 1 of 1 Peggy Curran From: Martin Pflughoeft [martybroker@comcast.net] Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 1:51 PM To: Peggy Curran Subject: License plate cameras Dear Peggy: I am a concerned citizen of Tiburon and I want to express that I hope that Tiburon decides to install the cameras that you are discussing. I am not alone in my feelings since I have discussed this issue with a number of other Tiburon residents and they all agree that this is a good thing to install these cameras. The only people who would disagree are organizations such as the ACLU and persons who are guilty of something. I am sure that if this was put to a vote that it would pass by an overwhelming majority of Tiburon residents. I look forward to this happening. Martin A. Pflughoeft 121 Taylor Rd. Tiburon, Ca. 94920 (415) 435-5097 .1 11 0 i11 nnn Page 1 of 1 Peggy Curran From: R & M Park [rmpark162@att.net] Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 1:02 AM To: Peggy Curran Subject: Surveillance Cameras Dear Ms. Curran, At this time our schedule precludes our attendance at the Council meeting Wednesday evening. Therefore, we respectfully request that you distribute copies of this email to Mayor Fredericks and Council members Berger, Collins, Gram, and Slavitz prior to the meeting. We are strongly opposed to the installation of surveillance cameras at entry points to the Town of Tiburon. We believe that to do so would be an egregious invasion of our privacy, and that the cost of installation and subsequent maintenance would divert funds from other needs in our community. We are also concerned about the potential negative impact the program might have on our local merchants and businesses. The number of tourists and out-of-town customers would be reduced by people who react negatively to the "big brother" atmospher of our town. If an individual was really intent on committing a crime in Tiburon, he would find ways of avoiding the camera detection, by entering on a bus, or stolen vehicle, or vehicle of a Tiburon resident, etc. We do not believe that the cost of the program warrants its establishment, and we value our privacy to highly to consider supporting this proposal. We therefore respectfully urge you, as our elected representative to reject the proposal to install the surveillance cameras. Sincerely, Richard Park Mar ories H. Park 261 Karen Way i1 '7i1nno Peggy Curran From: Roberta R. Jeffrey [mediate@ix.netcom.com] Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 9:36 AM To: Peggy Curran Subject: Cameras Dear Ms. Curran, I write as a follow up to my earlier letter to the Council, regarding the proposed camera installation. I would like to reiterate my concerns about such a system, and trust that you will convey these to the Council. I am quite concerned about the proposal for several reasons. 1. Invasion of privacy is a major issue on public streets. This means our own community will be under constant surveillance. The cameras will be filming our own residents, primarily, as they go about their business. It is clear that the surveillance of our own community will comprise the majority of film footage. This not only smacks of "Big Brother" but is economically unwise. 2. This is an unnecessary expenditure in these economic times, and one that is economically open=ended, and thus financially unwise. However, the greater concern is the privacy issue itself, and the danger of misuse of such a system, despite good intentions. 3. A better way to stop the crimes that occur in Tiburon, which are committed by non residents, is to educate our citizens about locking car and house doors, and about removing valuables from their cars. This will eliminate the "bait" and make Tiburon a less desirable target. An education campaign on the Peninsula, similar to "Get Ready," regarding these issues is money better spent. Again, the initial and ongoing expense of such a system is not justified by the loss of privacy that will ensue. The odds of finding potential thieves, etc. is small compared to the privacy and potential misuse possibilities of such a system. I urge the Council to vote against installing these cameras. Thank you for your time and consideration. Roberta Jeffrey