Residents of Wethersfield say they want to know more about their local police department’s plan to surveil major roadways.
Connecticut Public Radio reported earlier this month that high-definition pan, tilt and zoom cameras will be installed on primary roads throughout the town sometime in 2020. That includes the well-traveled Silas Deane Highway and Berlin Turnpike.
Council members unanimously approved the project at a meeting on Feb. 19, 2019. They did it moments after Wethersfield’s police chief James Cetran pitched to them a plan to install cameras at 12 predesignated locations across town.
But at the most recent council meeting, resident Debra Cohen said she didn’t hear about any planned installation until the Connecticut Public Radio article came out.
“Regardless of where you fall on that argument about whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, it seems to me that that sort of thing is really important enough to get lots of input and lots of feedback from town residents,” Cohen said.
Janice Diroberts also doesn’t think town officials have been transparent about the surveillance effort.
“For a lot of people, the idea of being surveilled is a very emotional thing, and it’s very important to get that word out to people,” Diroberts said.
Diroberts also expressed concern about something Cetran told the Town Council last year before it approved the plan. He said he wanted to have crime analysts from neighboring Hartford monitor Wethersfield roads in real time. But Connecticut Public Radio was told by a Hartford police lieutenant that the department wouldn’t allow such a partnership.
“My understanding is that what had originally been approved -- as far as the cameras go, is different from how it’s actually going to be -- so I think that that should be looked at again,” Diroberts said.
Diroberts and Cohen addressed Wethersfield officials during the public comment phase of the Feb. 18 Town Council meeting. After they finished, Councilman Kevin Hill told his colleagues he wanted Cetran to attend a future meeting to once again address the camera installation.
The town’s mayor said he’d consider extending the invitation.
Connecticut Public Radio reached out to Cetran and the Wethersfield Police Department for a comment on this story, but a phone call and email were not returned.
