For the first time in Mifflin Street Block Party history, cameras will be placed at various locations on Mifflin Street to monitor the actions of partygoers, police said Wednesday.
In previous years, police have placed one aerial camera on the roof of the nearby Metropolitan Place condominium building, according to MPD Lt. Joe Balles. For the 2008 festivities, police plan to install additional cameras along Mifflin Street to get
a better view of the action.
We're going try to put in some other cameras this year lower and closer to the ground like the ones on State Street and see how they work out for us - that'll be the first time we've done that,"" Balles said.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said previous surveillance measures at the Mifflin party were used to give officials stationed at a command post located on West Johnson Street a better idea of crowd activity.
""All the police and fire commanders that are in that command post can watch real-time what's happening on the street, and [the camera] has zoom-in capability,"" Verveer said.
Balles compared the new cameras for Mifflin Street to the ones installed on State Street as part of the Downtown Safety Initiative to oversee events like Freakfest. Police hope the presence of cameras will reduce the number of arrests made at Mifflin, which are significantly higher for the one-day event than the combined arrests made on two nights of Halloween weekend, according to Balles.
UW-Madison junior and Mifflin Street-area resident Tom Wangard said he does not think the cameras will change the behavior of the mostly responsible student crowd attending the party. He said the cameras should be used to protect students from harmful situations rather than aid in stricter enforcement of other violations.
""I think it's a fine tool as long as the police are using it with the safety interests of the students in mind,"" Wangard said. ""I just hope that they don't use it to crack down on, you know, taking a cup of beer one step onto the sidewalk or anything like that.
