Cameras for policing residents. Good or bad?

[cornholio]

The folk in my community are riled up because some residents have been littering the mail areas with the USPS flyers. There's also been some abuse of guest-only parking. All really trivial issues IMO. And then, a resident dumped a sofa near the trash compactor. That was it, the final straw. They're going nuts and now they're talking about wanting to install cameras that will be monitored by the HOA (managed by a company).

This is not to prevent theft or crime. This is with the intent of policing residents and discouraging them from abuse of facilities.

I understand getting cameras in the community to prevent crimes, theft. But getting cameras to police the residents seems like it's going too far, especially since the 'crimes' we're looking at are really minor. This is a very new community and I don't like the idea of spreading distrust and constant monitoring.

What are your thoughts about this? Are there guidelines for this sort of thing?

There is a HOA meeting soon and I'd like go prepared with thoughts, research and opinions.

 

[tangent]

There are always pros and cons to cameras and HOAs span a wide range. I had a friend who lived in a building that would fine you if you backed in to your parking space and labeled some of the doors in the building for traffic in one direction only, if somebody held the door and you walked the wrong way they'd use their cameras to fine you. They did tons of stupid things like this and it pissed a lot of people off. Like cops with traffic ticket quotas, it's a system prone to abuse when it profits the management company. That said I don't have a problem with a few cameras.

regarding junk mail before they invest in cameras, I'd want them to invest in more trash / recycling cans and a poster with instructions for oping out of pre-screened credit card offers (OptOutPrescreen.com) and some other junk mailDMAchoice, Catalog Choice
There have been incidents of mail theft from banks of locked mail boxes with a usps master key, so for that reason a camera near the mail boxes is a good idea.

Watching the area around a dumpster is pretty reasonable to me.

I'd probably have a camera or two covering the entrance / gate. ALPR is a nice way to control gate access.

Watching pools and weight rooms is also reasonable

 

[cornholio]

I agree that cameras are good for security and safety reasons. Now I'm wondering if I should sign up to procure, setup and maintain this for the community or just let the HoA do it. How much effort would that be?

 

[looney2ns]

I agree that cameras are good for security and safety reasons. Now I'm wondering if I should sign up to procure, setup and maintain this for the community or just let the HoA do it. How much effort would that be?

Let the HOA do it, unless it appears they are going to completely hose the job.

 

[c hris527]

The folk in my community are riled up because some residents have been littering the mail areas with the USPS flyers. There's also been some abuse of guest-only parking. All really trivial issues IMO. And then, a resident dumped a sofa near the trash compactor. That was it, the final straw. They're going nuts and now they're talking about wanting to install cameras that will be monitored by the HOA (managed by a company).

This is not to prevent theft or crime. This is with the intent of policing residents and discouraging them from abuse of facilities.

I understand getting cameras in the community to prevent crimes, theft. But getting cameras to police the residents seems like it's going too far, especially since the 'crimes' we're looking at are really minor. This is a very new community and I don't like the idea of spreading distrust and constant monitoring.

What are your thoughts about this? Are there guidelines for this sort of thing?

There is a HOA meeting soon and I'd like go prepared with thoughts, research and opinions.

I have dealt with this on the installer side. The HOA usually has a board and they called the shot's after packages went missing around the shared mail pick up area. Once the cameras are installed people will know and they will be the best deterrent to the menial stuff and in time people do not even see them or ignore them. The legal end of your question depends on local laws and codes, most just need a few reminder signs posted about.