Information director for county details security measures.

Is "Big Brother" watching you inside the new Leelanau County Government Center?

Ever since the county's $10.6 million, 68,000-square-foot building opened for business earlier this year, rumors that someone is videotaping and monitoring conversations throughout the building have circulated.

“Well, most of the rumors just aren’t true,” said county information technology director Ron Plamondon.
Although dozens of tiny TV cameras dot the ceilings in public areas throughout the building, the digital video cameras are rarely monitored – and none of them has audio capability.

RON PLAMONDON, Leelanau County
information technology director, demon-
strates how the video security system in
the new Leelanau County Government
Center works at a monitoring and screen-
ing station just outside a courtroom on
the top floor of the facility.

In other words, if you’re having a conversation with someone in one of the main hallways in the Government Center, there is no electronic system in place that can pick up what you’re saying. That means someone who might be monitoring a video feed from one of the cameras might be able to discern what you are saying – but only if you happen to be facing in exactly the right direction and "big Brother" happens to be able to read lips.

Plamondon said it’s true that inside the District Court hearing room in the Government Center, there’s an audio system set up to record court proceedings – but that system is part of the court’s record-keeping system, not the Government Center’s security system. In most Circuit Court hearings, transcripts are generated not from audio tapes but from notes taken by a human court recorder sitting near the judge’s bench.

And, in the near future, a new recording and public address system will be installed in the Board of Commissioners meeting room and a community meeting room to facilitate the taking of minutes at meetings held there. There are no recording devices or pickups in any of the smaller conference rooms.

Plamondon explained that most of the Government Center’s security system is geared toward monitoring the adjacent Law Enforcement Center and jail. The entire system employs six digital video recorders – all of which are located inside the Law Enforcement Center, not the Government Center. There are 16 tiny video cameras feeding images to each of the six recorders, meaning there are 96 cameras located throughout the county government campus in Suttons Bay Township – with the largest number of them outdoors, mostly around the jail.

In fact, four of the six recorders are for cameras used exclusively in the Law Enforcement Center and related jail facilities. These include cameras inside the jail itself, throughout the underground tunnel leading from the jail to the Government Center, inside the secure elevator used to bring prisoners up to the court room, and in the prisoner holding facility between the courtrooms. Generally, the cameras are monitored exclusively by corrections personnel keeping track of prisoners, Plamondon explained.

There are also a number cameras located in parking lots around the Government Center and Law Enforcement Center, as well as cameras at each entrance to the Government Center and in stairwells. In addition, cameras are located in the ceilings of the main, public hallways inside the government center on all three floors, and in courtrooms.

There are no security cameras or other recording devices in restrooms, offices, public elevators, or interior hallways generally used only by county employees.

“In other words, we can see video of someone parking their car and walking into the building,” Plamondon said. “We can see them in the lobby and then walking down the public hallway to one of the offices. We can see what office they went into, but once they’re inside the office we can no longer see them. And we’re never able to hear them.”

Although the security camera images are generally viewed only by corrections personnel, Plamondon can also view the images on a computer screen in his information technology office. In addition, a security screening station just outside the courtrooms on the top floor of the Government Center is equipped with password-protected computer monitors that are also able to access images from the TV cameras.

The security screening station outside the courtrooms is generally unmanned, although plans are in place to have Leelanau County sheriff’s deputies man the security station during high-profile court cases should the need arise.