Panel to block camera funds

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D.C. Council members bypassed by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in his plans to consolidate thousands of city cameras have moved to block funding for the program until it is better regulated.

"That's what we're trying to do," said council member Phil Mendelson, chairman of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, which agreed last week to remove funding for the program in the fiscal 2009 budget.

The Fenty administration's Video Interoperability for Public Safety program will consolidate roughly 5,200 cameras operated by District agencies into one network managed by the city's Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.

Mr. Fenty, a Democrat, has said the program is a way to improve public safety, traffic safety, counter-surveillance and emergency-response capabilities.

But the five-member public safety committee — Mr. Mendelson, at-large Democrat; Yvette Alexander, Ward 7 Democrat; Muriel Bowser, Ward 4 Democrat; Mary M. Cheh, Ward 3 Democrat and Jack Evans, Ward 2 Democrat — has recommended removing $886,000 from the budget that would help pay for the program.

Committee members say the full, 13-member council should reject the mayor's request for $714,000, to transfer 14 employees from city agencies to monitor the cameras and an additional $172,000 to help pay for the consolidation.

Mrs. Cheh said the committee's action was sparked by concern about how the program would be regulated and the lack of detail for it in the mayor's budget.

"This is to connect all those cameras at homeland security without any qualification as to who's going to have access to these cameras," she said. "Are they going to be live or real time ...there's none of that in there. It's like a black hole."

The committee also is drafting legislation to be included in the Budget Support Act that would require Mr. Fenty to submit rules governing the use of the cameras.

The council would have to approve the rules before the consolidation is "interoperably linked," the committee budget report states.

"This initiative, as proposed, would vitiate the safeguards carefully worked out between the council and the executive with regard to some 92 cameras already installed by the" Metropolitan Police Department, the report also states. "There has been no thought on what, if any, restrictions will govern the expanded system."

The full council is expected to consider the changes May 13, but it is unclear how taking away the funding will affect the project, if approved. Officials on Thursday began the program's first phase, which involves consolidating cameras from four agencies.

City officials say they plan to pay for the camera consolidation through multiple sources, including city money and federal grants, and that each agency will adhere to existing rules governing use of their cameras until comprehensive regulations are developed.

The District is now using $500,000 in fiscal 2007 federal homeland security grant funds for the program, officials said. The District is expected to spend an estimated $885,000 in city funds after the consolidation, compared with roughly $1.7 million this year.

Mr. Fenty has not specifically addressed the issue of whether he will continue to implement the program before the council considers the District's final budget.

"The budget my administration submitted to Council funded essential front-line public safety positions and programs so that we can better protect our citizens," the mayor said. "As the budget process continues, I will work with the council to ensure that these critical programs remain intact."