ashington Square Park at night can be a lonely place. The playground is empty, the chess players have gone home and no teen-agers linger by the fountain. Even so, the casual pedestrian is not alone. Parked on a side street, police inside a blue and white van with closed doors and blacked-out windows examine the scene. Twenty-four hours a day, 13 closed circuit cameras are trained on different locations throughout the park.

"It used to be a free-for-all in the park," says Police Officer Brennan, a 24-year veteran of the force. "Now we make around 100 [drug related] arrests each week."

Cameras were first installed in Washington Square Park in 1998. Later that year, a survey by the New York Civil Liberties Union found that more than 2,000 surveillance cameras were watching public spaces throughout Manhattan.

"Video surveillance cameras have arrived in the streets of New York City, with effectively no organized discussion or debate on their role in our city," said Norman Siegel, NYCLU's executive director, at a 1998 press conference. "We hope to change that."

The police keep a close eye on the park from the 10 monitors inside this van. PHOTO: Michael Axley

The NYCLU is currently trying to pass legislation to monitor the rights of those being watched. Although the park is quiet at night, during the day, it fills up with tourists, parents, children and students. Opinions were mixed.


"The question is, who's watching the watchers," says Ron Williams, one of several chess players who regularly gather in the southwest corner of the park. Williams said police regularly "hassle" the group. He added that the cameras don't bother him personally.

"I think it's an invasion of privacy," said Keith Smith, another member of the group. "It doesn't make any sense. They're just bugging people."

Doris Burger, a mother who lives in the neighborhood, pushed her child in a stroller beside the fountain. "I'm a parent, so I'd rather have them," says Burger. "Definitely, I feel safer. I didn't even know they were there."

A group of students from Bushwick say the parks in their neighborhood were often home to fights and drug dealing. "They got cameras here," says Elizette Santos, 17. "In our park, we're lucky if we got lights."

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Even the buildings around the park have private surveillance cameras. PHOTO: Michael Axley

"It used to be a
free-for-all in
the park"
—Police Officer Brennan

A police officer surveys the scene. PHOTO: Michael Axley

"I think it's an invasion of privacy."
—Keith Smith, Washington
Square Park chess player