Surveillance Cameras at Westfield's Stanley Park - abc40

Surveillance Cameras at Westfield’s Stanley Park
By Jeff Valin - email
December 20th, 2011

WESTFIELD, Mass. (WGGB) ? Next time you go to observe the ducks, be prepared to watch the birdie.

Westfield’s Stanley Park has installed three security cameras, to monitor the duck pond there.? The installation comes courtesy of donations from Westfield Bank, local information technology provider Mobius Works, and the public, and is inspired by the deadly stomping of a particularly beloved duck, “Ozzie,” by a teen in November.

“Ozzie was an inspiration to us, and we’re going to make a good thing out of it by making [the park] safer in his honor,” park managing director Bob McKean told ABC40 Tuesday.

Mobius founder and CEO Ed Watson says donating the equipment and installation labor was natural.

“I’ve always felt like the park is a safe place and I’ve always felt like I can bring my children here, drop them off and they can play, they can be here by themselves, and we just want to make sure that continues.”

The current three-camera system will be expanded, perhaps to as many as two-dozen, offering the park’s staff high-definition video views, including wide-angle and even night vision.? The video can be viewed live but is also recorded.? Of course, the primary aim is to deter the kind of senseless behavior that occurred in the park last month, but park management wants to add a fringe benefit: streaming the cameras’ views live to the Internet.

“Hopefully … by the first of the year, it’s up on the Web, so people can watch it … be able to see the beauty of Stanley Park’s pond area, right now anyway, and if they see anything they can call police if something’s going wrong,” McKean explained.

Watson, who’s already able to watch via a private connection, is already making the most of the aesthetics.

“Actually, some times when I’m up early in the morning, I’ll tune them in and I’ll watch the sun come up on the cameras.? It’s like having a window in the park right in my living room or in my office.? It’s fantastic.”

And of course, it stands to reason that, the more eyes watching, Watson says, the less inclined anyone would be to commit any wrongdoing in the park.

“If it’s publicly [known], people know they’re on camera, you’re automatically going to be on your best behavior.”

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