The city turned down a grant of more than $100,000 to install security cameras throughout Downtown, despite increasing merchant complaints that crime and aggressive panhandling are hurting business.
Many merchants and other Downtown interests strongly support the cameras and weren't aware the city rejected them because the issue was not discussed publicly.
Instead, the Tucson City Council quietly told Target Corp. "No, thank you" because several council members felt the cameras were an erosion of civil liberties. Target has since given the money to Fort Worth, Texas, said Donovan Durband, a member of the Tucson Downtown Partnership.
The council "sure didn't" talk about the issue in public, Durband said, noting that the grant given to Fort Worth was actually $250,000, not the $100,000 originally offered.
"Enough City Council members thought this was 'Big Brother,' " so Target took its money to Fort Worth, Durband said. "They haven't owned up to the fact they didn't want it."
People are also reading…
Tucson police Capt. Michael Gillooly confirmed that Target's money went to another city.
Business owners Downtown and on North Fourth Avenue want the cameras, said Margo Susco, owner of Hydra Leather and More, a clothing store Downtown.
Susco said she had been asking around for the past several weeks to determine the status of the cameras, only to find out from a reporter that the grant had been declined.
"It's not fair for the decision to be made behind closed doors," Susco said. "Our representatives owe it to us to let us have a say."
Gillooly said the Police Department is still exploring ways to get another grant from Target.
Councilman Jose Ibarra said he introduced the Downtown-cameras issue to the council along with other cameras — including cameras to catch red-light runners and a photo-radar van to catch speeders.
He said most other council members "supported the vans and intersection cameras because they only recorded when there was an infraction," but not the Target cameras.
When the red-light and photo-radar cameras came to a vote, Ibarra said, he left the security cameras out of the package because if he hadn't everything would have been torpedoed.
Councilman Steve Leal said during forums on the red-light and photo-radar cameras that residents said they didn't like cameras that were always on and recording. "I'm trying to represent the people, and that's what the people told us," he said.
The proposal was announced in September 2006 and given the name "Rio Nuevo Safe City Centro." Police hoped to bring it to a council vote that fall.
"We can't get a whole lot of answers," Susco said of the quiet decision to pass up the Target grant.
The city even had identified 14 locations for the cameras, which would have been monitored from police headquarters. Officers would have been able to pan them over an area and zoom in to capture a license-plate number or a facial expression.
Footage would potentially have been stored for 14 to 30 days and then purged unless it was going to be used for evidence, Susco said.
Many businesses on Fourth Avenue also support the cameras and "are still trying to get that looked into," said John Sedwick, executive director of the Fourth Avenue Merchants Association.
He blamed the media for reporting on the story before all the details about the plan were fleshed out and ready to be presented. Sedwick said it's not just about the cameras, and that the Target software also includes Web functions that allow businesses to send messages and share safety tips.
Downtown merchants have complained loudly on several occasions about the criminal element and aggressive panhandling that they say is scaring away customers.
First, a group of business owners took their complaints to the council, speaking at length at a recent meeting about the impact of street people on their businesses and how aggressive panhandlers are making customers and the business owners uneasy.
They said panhandling by the homeless and drug users has become downright scary and could be a turnoff for visitors coming Downtown.
Two weeks later the a group of business owners met with Councilwoman Nina Trasoff to repeat those concerns.
Since then some Downtown business owners, such as Carlo Borella, owner of Caffé Milano, say the homeless and panhandling problems have improved.
But others say not much has changed, other than where in Downtown the problem is.
The aggressive response from business owners may have thawed the opposition of at least one council member — Trasoff, who represents Downtown.
Her aide, C.T. Revere, said Trasoff has become more "tolerant" of the cameras and has softened her opposition because she realized that there are many public and private cameras Downtown already.
Durband said he expects a push to be made for the cameras once a new council is seated in December, although paying for them will become an issue; they're likely to cost more than the $100,000 figure.
Revere said it wasn't a mistake to decline the grant because it's possible Target will give the city another one.
Dana Pack, Tucson regional manager for Target, said Target is continuing to court cities around the country for the program, and Tucson could have another chance for a grant.
"There's always that possibility," Pack said.
