The city council in the Southern California beach city of Santa Monica has approved funding for an extensive public CCTV system to protect its Santa Monica Pier and 3rd Street Promenade tourist attractions. The cameras, to be installed in the coming months, will monitor the thousands of visitors and tourists who frequent the area each year.
KNBC-TV reports the installation isn’t so much being made because of any crime in the area, but more because of terrorism fears. Reports have been coming in of suspicious people taking pictures and video of the facilities, and both the pier and the Promenade have been the subjects in the past of known al Qaida chatter on possible targets for attack.
“Some men were videotaping in a manner that was inconsistent with tourist photography. They were photographing access roads and security structures,” Santa Monica Police Chief James Butts told KNBC.
