Camera in Lobby 5, intended to catch vandals
Camera in Lobby 5, intended to catch vandals
Continuing its use of surveillance to combat crime and mischief, MIT’s Security Office has installed a camera in the lobby of Building 5, overlooking the wheelchair lift.
According to Thomas W. Komola, who manages the Security and Emergency Management, vandals had been tampering with the handicapped access lift that gives access between the street level and the first floor level.
This is the third new campus camera that The Tech has noticed this year, though other recently added cameras have been much more general-purpose and less targeted — two cameras were added atop Building 54 this summer, one of which can be pointed by remote control, overlooking the East Campus dormitory and the “Dot”; the other is a fixed camera, looking at the North Court.
Komola has told The Tech in the past that footage from these cameras may only be used with the authorization of Chief of Police John DiFava.
But Komola and DiFava have not yet responded to repeated inquiries in the past two months asking how often the footage has been used, and whether the approval process is being followed.
—John A. Hawkinson