Aiming to comfort visitors, officials plan to install surveillance cameras downtown

Surveillance cameras will be installed in downtown Riverhead parking lots, if the town board signs off on a plan proposed by the Riverhead Parking District committee.

The parking district committee, chaired by Councilman John Dunleavy, last week voted to approve the installation of wireless surveillance cameras in the parking lots on both sides of Main Street.

“The perception is wrong,” Dunleavy said in an interview Monday. “People are asking to be walked out to their cars,” he said. He and other town officials, including the chief of police, maintain that perception of crime downtown is much worse than its actual incidence.

“Cameras will make people more comfortable,” Dunleavy said. The councilman, a retired police officer, also said he believes they will act as a deterrent. They also help police investigating crimes that occur.

Cody’s manager Vic Prusinowski, a member of the committee, agreed. “I think it’s necessary,” he said. “We have to send a message out there that this is a safe district.”

Wireless technology has made the equipment installation much more affordable, since hard-wiring is no longer necessary, Prusinowski said. The cameras would feed a central monitoring station that Prusinowski, a former Riverhead councilman, said he thought should be set up in Riverhead police headquarters. He said he was not sure the police chief endorsed the idea.

Chief David Hegermiller could not be reached for comment. But Supervisor Sean Walter, who also serves as the town’s police commissioner, said he had not heard any objections from the chief.

“I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad idea,” Walter said in an interview Monday. “The board has been generally supportive of it,” he said. “It is in keeping with everything we’ve been doing downtown.” Walter said.

The as-yet undetermined cost will be paid out of the parking district’s funds. The parking district is a special downtown taxing district comprising downtown properties. The taxes fund the maintenance of municipal parking lots within the district. Properties inside the district can rely on the district’s municipal lots to meet parking requirements for uses established on district properties.

“We have all these new businesses downtown,” said Prusinowski, a former Riverhead councilman. “There’s new tourism, especially with the Suffolk Theater opening up. We have to send a message,” Prusinowski said.

The district will post signs — in English and Spanish — about cameras in the area, he said.

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