Council Debates Placing Surveillance at Developments

Less than 72 hours after a Chinese food deliveryman was stabbed during an apparent botched robbery at an Astoria housing project last week, the assailant who had been videotaped fleeing from the building with a knife surrendered after police circulated his image.

The complex where the stabbing occurred was one of 35 citywide at which camera equipment is in place to monitor or videotape activity. Now, two City Council panels are debating a resolution that would request federal dollars to be used to outfit with cameras all 344 developments owned by the city housing authority where more than 400,000 people live.

The housing chief for the New York Police Department, Joanne Jaffe, testified at a hearing yesterday that crime in developments with surveillance cameras has "steadily declined," and information gathered by the camera systems has helped police make more than 4,300 arrests.

Chief Jaffe said the police policy protects people's privacy by monitoring only public spaces such as lobbies and stairwells, but civil libertarians say they aren't entirely convinced.

Although New York Civil Liberties Union lawyers didn't testify at yesterday's hearing, the rights group — which later this month will release a report on video surveillance titled "Who's Watching?" — urged the council in an October hearing on nightclubs to make sure widespread camera operations have privacy safeguards.

"We're the civil liberties union, so we want to know what regulations are in place to protect our right to privacy," a legislative counsel for the rights group, Irum Taqi, said yesterday after the housing hearing. "Safeguards need to be in place."

A Police Department spokesman, Paul Browne, told The New York Sun that surveillance tapes are deleted or overridden after a week or two if they aren't needed to apprehend suspects or prosecute criminals.

Council Member Rosie Mendez of Manhattan, chairwoman of the public housing subcommittee, said she approves of cameras only if residents want them.

Meanwhile, Council Members Charles Barron of Brooklyn and Peter Vallone Jr. of Queens yelled at each other as Mr. Barron berated the testifying police witnesses and argued that a racial "powder keg" would soon explode if the police didn't take people's complaints about police brutality more seriously.

The two politicians angrily interrupted each other, and Mr. Barron, who accused Mr. Vallone of being too pro-police, balked when Mr. Vallone told him he had 30 seconds to finish talking.

"Those days are over, Peter," Mr. Barron said.

"What days would those be, Council Member Barron?" Mr. Vallone interrupted. "What days would those be?"