Trustees not in favor of cemetery cameras

Concerns for privacy and efficacy

Perry Township trustees are not in favor of placing security cameras in the community’s two cemeteries as a way to detect people who steal plants, solar lights and other items from grave sites.

Trustee Rick Amos said the cameras also could prove unsettling to law-abiding people who want to have private and personal moments at the burial places of loved ones.

“If we had a camera, it doesn’t know only to turn on when people are stealing something, it’s going to turn on when other people are in the cemetery going within the

vision of that camera,” Amos said.

Trustees, during their Oct. 27 work session and regular meeting, discussed the possible benefits and drawbacks of placing security cameras in cemeteries as a way to monitor thefts and other crimes.

Although no formal legislative action was taken, trustees left no doubt about where they stood on the issue.

Larry Reichard, a North Perry Village resident who regularly attends township trustee meetings,

asked Amos on Oct. 27 to clarify why placing a security camera in a cemetery could be a violation of privacy.

“I don’t see the link there,” Reichard said. “Because if there’s a person doing damage in the cemetery, and he’s caught on film, that’s public information.”

Despite the intended purpose of the cameras, they also might detract from the tranquility that many people seek when they go to visit the grave of a loved one, Amos noted.

“The problem is, you’re also going to be filming people that aren’t going to be doing anything wrong,” he said.

Trustee Bob Dawson said the

presence of security cameras in cemeteries is more than just a legal matter.“I think there’s an issue that it’s hallowed ground, too,” Dawson said.

The township owns and operates two cemeteries: Perry Cemetery on Center Road near Middle Ridge Road; and South Ridge Cemetery, at the intersection of South Ridge and Lane roads.

If security cameras were installed at either or both cemeteries, Amos said it could create the challenges of reviewing surveillance footage if a person reported an object being stolen from a loved one’s grave site.

“Let’s say that on a given day somebody complains that some

time over a three-day period since the last time I was at the cemetery, my mom’s (chrysanthemum plant) got stolen,” Amos said.

“So you go back in the week where there were 75 cars that went through (the cemetery). So now you’re going to have them track down all 75 people to find out who it is that might have possibly taken that (chrysanthemum). It’s just not practical.”

Amos said the Lake County Sheriff’s Office occasionally patrols each cemetery, and Perry Village Police Depar tment also makes periodic rounds through Perry Cemetery, thanks to an agreement reached several years ago between the township

and village.

Amos said reports of thefts at South Ridge and Perry cemeteries are not rampant, but anytime these incidents occur, he understands the emotional impact on relatives of a deceased person.

“When it’s your loved one’s grave and somebody steals something off it, especially something you might have bought, it just hurts,” Amos said.

“It’s just beyond me that there are people like that out there (who steal items from grave sites), but there are. It’s a sad commentary.”

BILL DEBUS - THE NEWS-HERALD Flowers appear near several headstones at Perry Cemetery in Perry Township on Nov. 3.