Harbormaster Wants Darien Videocams

By late this year, Darien waters near the Noroton Yacht Club and Darien Boat Club may be under continuous video surveillance.

You may be able to control each of two cameras to be set up as webcams from the harbormaster's website. Other, stationary cameras would provide continuous surveillance of boats in the water off of the shore by the two clubs.

The purpose of the cameras, Harbormater Tom Bell told the Board of Selectmen on Monday, would be both to provide some security for the boats, protecting them from mischief or theft, and to identify boats in distress or separated from their moorings during storms.

"Most of the boat clubs up and down the coast have video surveillance cameras into the harbors," Bell said.

The cameras would not only have 48-hour video loops but also "cloud" backup on the Internet, so that if police or someone else needed to see previous footage, it would be available.

The webcams would be set up so that they were trained on the water, Bell said. "We wold limit the ability to zoom so they would not be able to focus on the neighbors, to the best of our ability," he said.

Bell said he has permission from each yacht club's commodore to set up the cameras, and from the board at the Noroton Yacht Club. Selectmen suggested he get support from the board of the Darien Boat Club as well.

Bell expects to be able to pay for the cameras with $7,000 in private donations, but he would like approval from the Board of Selectmen before starting the project, which he hopes to have completed in the late summer.

Selectmen said they would set up a public information period, like a public hearing, to get a sense of what the public thinks about the idea.