Cameras Abound, But Can They Catch the Sniper?
Oct. 16 -- We are not alone. On an average day in America, each one of us is photographed by an estimated 200 surveillance cameras. On roads, parking lots, street corners and stores.
In the Washington, D.C., area since September 11th, that's especially true. Security cameras abound that are capable in a time of crisis of providing sophisticated, cutting-edge video surveillance. They can gather details as small as license plates and can isolate individual faces in a crowd.
"If we see anything in particular we have an interest in or suspicious we can take control of that camera and then zoom in," said Stephen Gaffigan of the Washington, D.C., Police Department.
Big Brother is certainly watching — so could the serial sniper's identity already be locked on a videotape?
Investigators hope he has crossed in front of the lenses of countless surveillance and security cameras since his spree began. The problem is knowing which cameras to turn to.
Wrong Views, Grainy Pictures
There are hundreds of traffic cameras. And there are security and surveillance cameras at businesses, ATMs, subways and outside office buildings.
At the scene of every sniper shooting, police are looking for surveillance cameras that may have caught the sniper in action — an image of a vehicle, a license plate, even a face — a clue.
But one of the security cameras at the Exxon gas station where last Friday's shooting occurred was pointed toward the interior of the store when the victim was shot — guarding the cash, not the pumps.
Another gas station — the scene of last Wednesday's shooting — had a security camera system, but it remained in its box, uninstalled when the sniper struck.
Even when a security camera captures critical footage, it can look grainy and blurry and investigators can't zoom in to reveal important details that might lead to the capture of the sniper. Also, footage from most traffic cameras is not recorded, so law enforcement cannot go back to view images moments after the shootings.
