Fighting crime in a San Diego park - Balboa Park

In June 1993, Carla Frogner was the only park ranger assigned to San Diego's 1,200-acre Balboa Park. Early one morning before her shift began and just as the ground maintenance crew was coming on duty, a 17-year old man was shot and killed near one of the park's snack bars. This was the first of two brutal murders to take place on the grounds of one of the city's most visited tourist attractions.

Frogner felt helpless. She knew the task of stopping crime in the nation's second largest municipal park was daunting and well beyond the resources of an unarmed park ranger and a small number of uniformed city police officers.

Balboa Park annually attracts 13 million visitors for a wide range of recreational opportunities, museums and world famous attractions such as the San Diego Zoo and the Old Globe Theatre. The park provides more than 7,000 parking spaces (more than 9,000 counting adjacent street parking) which are often full.

Murder was a highly unusual event in the park, but Frogner had also been frustrated by her inability to slow the increase of other non-violent crimes such as car theft and burglaries. She desperately wanted a way for park personnel to more efficiently monitor the area.

"I was frustrated because it seemed whenever a crime was happening at one location in the park, the city police officers and I were patrolling somewhere else," said Frogner. "We needed a way for one person to be able to watch a large portion of the park at once."

Then, she remembered a former co-worker, Nona McAlister, who had gone to work as a customer service engineer at Sensormatic Electronics/Robot, a manufacturer of digital video products and CCTV control systems for the security industry. As part of her job, McAlister worked closely with Sensormatic customers so that she was very familiar with the types of surveillance equipment available and their applications. She knew that Frogner needed a video monitoring system that would allow park personnel to stretch their resources by watching more areas of the park using fewer people.

"I knew that the technology existed and that the equipment was readily available," McAlister said. "Our problem was putting together an integrated system when the city had absolutely no money for it in the park's budget." So, she went to Thomas Cashman, Sensormatic's vice president and general manager, who agreed to donate the multiplexing equipment necessary for an initial security system in Balboa Park. "We are a part of this community and Balboa Park is one of its most valuable assets," said Cashman. "We all use the park and we were happy to do what we could to help make it safer."

Although McAlister had secured the equipment, she was still a long way from building an entire system and having it installed and operational. She still needed to get cameras, lenses and cable, so she put out a call for help; the calls paid off. Equipment manufacturers Pelco, Elmo and Rainbow all agreed to donate the pieces needed to complete the system.

Park administrators, city officials and technical support representatives then met to determine the best location for the new system. They selected the Museum of Natural History, which -- like many other buildings in the park -- is housed in a Spanish-style structure built for the 1915 Pan American Exposition.

The museum was selected for two reasons. First, because it is one of the few exposition-era buildings in the park not slated to be torn down. And second for its location at the end of the Prado -- a pedestrian mall that fronts many of the park's public buildings -- and immediate proximity to major public parking lots.

The donated system includes five cameras; two fixed and three rotating. Also donated were two 19-inch color monitors, a 24-hour, real-time video cassette recorder and 5,000 feet of coaxial cable. Sensormatic's contribution to the system was a Robot MV99 Mulltivision Plus Color Digital Picture Multiplexer, a CS68 camera controller and five RC60 receiver drivers. The W99 multiplexer is used to simultaneously record and display video from as many as nine cameras to a single VCR and color monitor.

Just before the system was installed, tragedy struck again at Balboa Park. In May 1994, a young drama student and actor at the Old Globe Theatre was killed in a random drive-by shooting as he walked across the Laurel Street bridge, one of the main vehicular entrances to the park. The victim's companion was also wounded. The incident was highly publicized by San Diego media and had a profound effect upon the community. Nearly all park attractions reported decreased attendance.

Although the police and park rangers had begun to make progress in reducing crime there, the public needed more assurances that it was still safe to visit the park.

Park department district manager, Penny Scott, said the security system has made an impact upon city officials, residents and park visitors. Local media reported the new system and signs around the Museum announced that the area was being electronically monitored. According to Scott, park attendance has increased. "I have also heard from museum and other park employees that there is a higher level of comfort and safety knowing that the area is being monitored," she said. Statistics support that general feeling. In the first year after the system's installation, crime in almost every category continued to decline in Balboa Park.

San Diego City Councilwoman Christine Kehoe, whose district encompasses Balboa Park, agreed that a system expansion would be nice, budget permitting. But for the time being, she is very pleased with the initial system. "I feel security and safety is the number one issue in keeping the park open and available to our citizens," she said. "This system is an excellent example of how we can use technology to stretch our personnel resources as far as possible. We are extremely grateful to the manufacturers for their donations. This is public service in its best sense."

COPYRIGHT 1997 National Recreation and Park Association
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