Video Cameras At A Tulsa Park

Tuesday, July 25th 2006, 10:00 am

By: News On 6

An east Tulsa man was surprised one day when he looked up at a light pole in a city park and it looked like somebody was looking back at him. Somebody had put a TV camera at the top of the pole, actually 2 cameras on two different poles.

So who's watching and why?

News on 6 reporter Steve Berg says Phillip Smith lives just across the street from Cowan Park and enjoys coming to the park. "My son's 5 years old, and it's a great place for kids, so we come over here fairly often."

So he was concerned when he saw what was on top of two of the light poles in the park. "And I happened to notice there were cameras up there, one up there, and one over there." Smith owns a video production company, so he's got a pretty good eye for cameras and these looked real enough to him. "I just don't know what they're looking at or why." With one of the cameras aimed at the playground, Smith worried that somebody was up to no good.

But in a refreshing twist, somebody is up to some good. Namely the head of the local neighborhood association, David Kelley. He says he and another neighbor got the idea of putting cameras on the poles. "And we got 'em and ordered 'em out of a cheapo catalogue and stuck them up there, with the battery in them so they look real official."

Kelley says they're dummy cameras and they're not connected to anything. He says they thought it might help deter the drinking, drug deals, and vandalism that sometimes happen after hours. "If they're trying to get away with something they shouldn't, that the all-seeing eye is watching you, that sort of thing."

Smith is just glad it's good news for a change. "If there's a situation of underage drinking around here or vandals or whatever. If it deters one incident I think it's a great thing."

Kelley says he got approval from the Tulsa Parks Department before putting up the cameras. The cameras are on park property, so the parks department does have the authority to take them down if it came to that. But now that everyone is on the same page, it sounds like Smith likes them.