City Passes Nightclub Security Laws - Cameras Required at Doors

NEW YORK -- The City Council passed measures Wednesday - about a year after the death of a Massachusetts woman -- that require security cameras at nightclub doors and make it easier to shut down businesses that sell fake identifications.

Graduate student Imette St. Guillen, a Boston native, was abducted, raped and killed last February. An unlicensed bouncer at a Manhattan bar where she had been drinking was charged in her death.

Rosemarie Arnold, a lawyer for St. Guillen's mother and sister, said the family was grateful the City Council had acted to make nightlife safer.

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"Surveillance Cameras Saw Trouble, Police Stopped It" - Redlands Daily Facts (CA) (02/23/07)

A surveillance camera system in downtown Redlands, Calif., recently helped police prevent a potential assault. Police dispatchers were monitoring the cameras from the Police Department's Dispatch Center when they noticed a man in a crosswalk who was aggressively confronting pedestrians. Dispatchers continued monitoring the situation while dispatching officers to the scene who arrested the man for public intoxication. Police say that the pan-tilt-zoom cameras act as "force multipliers" and allow police to prevent a crime in progress or even prevent a crime from occurring. "I would much rather put someone in jail now for being drunk in public than arrest him later after a fight or an assault," said Police Chief Jim Bueermann. The four-camera surveillance system was funded via $75,000 in state and federal technology grants.

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