At Aries Wines & Spirits in White Plains, no video camera tracks customers entering the store on West Post Road. No camera monitors liquor sales at the front checkout counter. Browsers browse rows of shelves and a rear wine room in the absence of all-seeing digital technology.
That will change by this time next year, though, unless business owners Tony Russo and Andrea Kish want to risk $250-a-day fines and up to 15 days in jail. Those are the penalties for violations of the new city video camera systems ordinance unanimously adopted this month by the White Plains Common Council.
The law, said to be the first of its kind among communities in the lower Hudson Valley, takes effect in February 2015.
Expected to affect about 250 retail businesses in the city, the law applies to pharmacies; alcohol-serving or alcohol-selling restaurants, bars, convenience stores, liquor stores, groceries and delis; businesses regularly open between midnight and 4 a.m.; check-cashing businesses; second-hand dealers that buy and sell precious metals and pawn shops.
Those businesses are required to install digital video cameras at or near each entrance or exit regularly used by customers or employees.
The camera must be positioned to capture in full frame the faces of persons entering the establishment and, “to the extent practicable,” must scope activity within 15 feet of each entrance and exit.
The video cameras must record at a minimum speed of eight frames per second and produce “easily discernible images recorded at all times.”
The cameras must operate nonstop during business hours and for two hours after the business closes. They must be maintained in good working condition.
But no audio with the camera images: sound capability in systems is not allowed by the new law.
Businesses must index video recordings by dates and times and save them for at least seven days. The saved recordings must be kept in a locked receptacle, preferably in an area of the store accessible only to authorized personnel.
The camera recordings must be turned over to city”™s public safety department or building department for official investigations or when approved by commissioners of those departments or their designees.
White Plains Commissioner of Public Safety David E. Chong, in a statement supporting its adoption by the Common Council, said the law was “carefully crafted” by the city law department and was proposed “to improve public safety and security by deterring persons from committing crimes and/or acts of disorder and to assist with the identification of violators.”
Common Council member John Kirkpatrick, an attorney, said the ordinance was developed in an “extended process” that included input from merchants through the White Plains Business Improvement District.
Kevin Nunn, executive director of the city”™s downtown BID, could not be reached for comment on the impact of the law and the BID”™s role in drafting it.
Kirkpatrick said public safety department staff plans to visit affected stores over the next year to review requirements for the camera systems. “I think that”™s an excellent idea,” he said.
At Aries Wines & Sprits, Tony Russo and business partner Andrey Russo said they received no formal notice from the city that the law was being considered, but rather had learned about it in a television news segment.
“I”™m on both sides of the issue,” Tony Russo said. “On one hand, I need surveillance cameras here”¦We”™re in a high-risk business” for thefts. “Look around. There”™s money all over the place ”“ and it”™s liquid.”
Russo said he was shopping for a video camera system before the law was introduced. “We”™re a perennial target” and a camera “is a deterrent,” he said.
For his business, “To install a system is a couple of grand at least,” he said, in addition to maintenance costs. An owner”™s investment of $2,000 or more “will be a substantial outlay” in an economy in which many retail merchants still struggle, he said.
“It”™s something I wanted to do, but why should I be forced to do it? I think it”™s an infringement on personal rights,” Russo said. “It smacks of Big Brother, it really does. That”™s the part that bothers me.”
“Is this (law) necessary?” Andrey Russo said. “I think it”™s an extra pain in the ass and extra expense.”
At Saxon Pharmacy on Mamaroneck Avenue, owner Atul Modi is among the city merchants who won”™t need to budget an additional expense to comply with the new ordinance.
“We already have a camera,” said Modi, who has owned the drug store at 460 Mamaroneck Ave. for about 15 years. “It”™s for our own safety.”
“It is very useful” in surveillance of both employees and customers for thefts, he said.
