By Dan Voelpel
Business columnist

Santa won’t be the only omniscient mortal watching to see if you’ve been naughty or nice in Federal Way next year. The cops will have an eye on you too. Make that 25 eyes.

From their squad cars, patrol officers will have Wi-Fi control over 25 video cameras strategically mounted throughout a 1-square-mile zone around The Commons, Federal Way’s regional shopping mall.

Why? Plenty of naughty people hang out there. Nearly 25 percent of all crime in Federal Way happens in that smallish zone, according to police statistics.

Blame it, mostly, on imported punks.

Video Surveillance Demo
When: Tuesday, Dec. 4, 10 a.m.
Where: Macy’s courtyard inside The Commons at Federal Way
What: LenSec Corp. will show how Federal Way police officers can monitor video cameras from their patrol cars and, hopefully, respond more quickly to crimes in progress.

“Unfortunately,” according to a police analysis obtained by The News Tribune, “because of its location, Federal way has become a junction for criminal activity. The Federal Way Police Department has recognized that out-of-town criminals victimize businesses in the city and then utilize the immediate access to the freeways and/or transit for a convenient escape.”

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Video cameras aimed at The Commons, the new transit center and surrounding blocks, will help police track the punks. While Federal Way becomes a local pioneer in this technology, the strategy isn’t new to the world.

The push to install an intense network of digital eyes has become a booming worldwide security trend, most used in Europe but increasingly popular in the U.S. The United Kingdom, reportedly, has an estimated 4.2 million closed-circuit video cameras – or one for every 14 citizens.

Federal Way Police Officer Shawn Swanson just wanted two cameras to better track the shoplifters and car prowlers. As the officer assigned to mall duty, he wondered aloud how that might happen.

Word made its way across South 320th Street to managers at the Target store.

Now, Federal Way’s $360,000 project includes a $100,000 grant from the Target Corp. – and much more than Officer Swanson originally envisioned.

Target has seeded nearly two dozen “Safe City” initiatives with grants to install community video surveillance. Federal Way’s grant marks the first in the Northwest.

Federal Way couldn’t have done it without Target’s tip or financial support.

“We thought that what we were asking for was some kind of far out, Star Trek kind of stuff,” said Lt. Mark Benson, who has worked on the project with Swanson.

Not so. At a public demonstration Tuesday, technicians from LenSec Corp. will set up two temporary cameras and show how officers can remotely control them from a laptop computer. The full system, after testing, should be operational by June.

LenSec recently did a private demonstration with the police department and allowed officers to log into the Houston Police Department surveillance system and control cameras 1,000 miles away.

Federal Way’s project includes more than just the video cameras. With a $5,000 grant from Weyerhaeuser, the police department plans to buy 14 radios for their officers, undercover loss prevention officers who work from individual stores and mall security. That way, Benson said, with crimes in progress, all the forces can talk with each other and officers can relay play-by-play coverage from the video cameras.

“If something happens, we can get the information out quick. We’ll all be on the same page,” Benson said. “It’ll have to improve our crime statistics.”

For you who annually show up Santa’s nice list, does it worry you that police officer can watch what you do in Federal Way’s shopping district?

The police acknowledge this much, according to their documents, “The system will be utilized in places where there is no expectation of privacy…the cameras will capture information that a police officer sitting in a car could readily see. The system will be regulated to ensure that there is no violation of citizen privacy.”
Time and experience will tell if that’s how it works.

Nevertheless, Benson said, as part of the program’s governing philosophy, it will abide by principles established by the American Bar Association, including:

• The surveillance cameras will not be equipped with audio capability.
• Police officers will not target or track individuals arbitrarily or based on race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability or other classifications proteted by law.
• Police will use the surveillance system to observe activity in public places where no one has an expectation of privacy.
• The Police Department promises to discipline officers who misuse the system.

Federal Way anticipates an expansion of its video network. And other South Puget Sound cities already have notified Federal Way that they will watch to see how it works and may adopt similar surveillance networks, Benson said.

The law-abiding folks among us, who fall into the category of potential victims, should welcome the added sense of safety – and hope Federal Way’s experience rubs off on Tacoma, Puyallup, Sumner, Olympia, University Place, among others.