Cedar Rapids malls not required to have video surveillance

CEDAR RAPIDS — New legislation requiring dozens of Cedar Rapids businesses to install video surveillance systems exempts Lindale Mall, one of the city's busiest retail sites that has nearly 350 police calls last year.

Ordinance 60A, approved in May, requires banks, convenience stores, hotels, fast-food restaurants, cellphone dealers, pawnshops, liquor stores and ammo dealers to have 24/7 video surveillance to deter crime and assist with prosecution.

But mall food courts specifically are exempted from the rules, and mall public areas, such as concourses and play areas, are not mentioned.

"Lindale Mall is currently not required to have them (video recorders) by Cedar Rapids City ordinance, and the update would not require them," said Greg Buelow, Cedar Rapids Police Department spokesman.

When a brawl broke out Feb. 15, 2014, in the Lindale Mall food court, there was no surveillance video to catch the chair-throwing, wrestling and shoving. It was only after cellphone videos went viral police were able to charge five people with disorderly conduct.

A 2012 incident in which a food court employee reported being shoved repeatedly by an angry ex-boyfriend wasn't captured on film, either, because, as the police report notes, "security guards stated that there was no video surveillance in the area ...

nor was there video surveillance in the parking lot."

Kerry Sanders, Lindale Mall manager, declined to answer The Gazette's questions about use of video surveillance, training of security guards or the number of potentially violent calls for service to the mall.

"We remain diligent in maintaining a crime-free environment as our top priority is the safety of all shoppers and employees," Sanders said in a statement released through a Florida public relations firm. "As part of our security program, which is directed by an experienced leadership team, we work closely with the Cedar Rapids Police Department for assistance as needed."

Broader surveillance

The city's new video surveillance rules replace an ordinance put into effect in 1992 after the 1989 murder of a convenience store clerk went unsolved because there was no video, Cedar Rapids police Lt. Tony Robinson told the City Council April 28.

The previous ordinance required a few types of all-night businesses, such as convenience stores, to have video surveillance between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.

The new rules expand the businesses that must have cameras, define the technology required so police can get clear images and require businesses record 24/7 and keep the footage 30 days. The code focuses on retail establishments that deal in cash, have products easily stolen or have products popular on the black market such as guns and cellphones, Robinson said.

"It offers protection for the citizens from injury or death," Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman told the Council. "It also aids the police department in solving crimes within the city of Cedar Rapids."

Some Lindale Mall businesses, such as banks or cellphone retailers, would be required to have video surveillance under the new code. Other stores, such as Von Maur, voluntarily equip their stores with cameras.

Although fast-food restaurants are supposed to have video surveillance, a "carryout food and drink establishment shall not be subject to this Chapter if it either a.) shares a common area with other businesses or b.) does not have its own entrance or exit ...

A business which is part of a so called food court shall not be subject to this Chapter."

Buelow did not provide information about why food courts were let off the hook other than to say that if Lindale Mall was required to have video surveillance, police also might have to require the NewBo City Market to have cameras.

Lindale safety

Lindale Mall, opened in 1960 as Lindale Plaza, is owned by a spin off of Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group. AlliedBarton is the mall's private security contractor.

A Gazette analysis shows Lindale had more disturbances, fights, assaults and armed subjects in the past five years than Coral Ridge Mall, in Coralville, and Jordan Creek Town Center, in West Des Moines — both of which are bigger malls.

— Lindale, with 685,000 square feet of gross leasable area, had 260 calls for service dealing with disturbances, fights, assaults or weapons in fiscal years 2011 through 2015, according to the Cedar Rapids police.

— Coral Ridge Mall, which opened in 1998 and has 1.2 million square feet of gross leasable area, had 66 police calls for disturbances, assaults, fights or armed subjects over the last five years.

— Jordan Creek Town Center, with 1.34 million square feet of gross leasable area, opened in 2004. That mall had 121 reported assaults, disputes, fights and armed subjects in the last five years, according to the West Des Moines Police.

Cedar Rapids police are comfortable with the level of security provided at Lindale Mall, Buelow said.

Still, Shaun Farmer, security director for AlliedBarton, the company hired for security at the mall, expressed concerns last month about gangs at Lindale Mall.

"Can you identify any recent gangs that have popped up on radar we should be aware of frequenting the mall," Farmer wrote CRPD Lt. Tim Daily in a July 29 email obtained by The Gazette through an open-records request. "We haven't experienced any tagging recently at Lindale, but has the city had anything new pop up?

"In the last month or so Lindale had a robbery in front of US Bank and a stabbing in the parking lot by Cheddars. Were these incidents gang related at all?"

Daily wrote back to say he had no information the incidents Farmer described were connected to gangs.

In a June email, Farmer asked Daily for recommendations of CRPD officers who could talk with mall merchants about organized retail crime and bomb training.

Value of video

Cameras not only deter crime but to help police understand what happened if a crime occurs and to identify participants, officers said.

Coralville Police used surveillance video from Scheels sporting goods store to show how Joseph Moreno rammed his SUV into the store's glass doors early Dec. 29, 2012, entered the store with a handgun, broke a display case and "dry fired" several firearms.

"It was incredibly helpful in that circumstance," Coralville Lt. Shane Kron said. "There was no argument about what happened."

But Coralville Police couldn't get video of a June 12 fatal shooting in the Coral Ridge Mall because the mall doesn't have video surveillance in the food court or common areas, Kron said. Police did obtain video from mall retailers showing Alexander Kozak, 22, an off-duty security guard, walking into and out of the mall where he's accused of shooting Andrea Farrington, 20, as she worked at the mall's information booth, Kron said.

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, video can tell the whole story — especially when showed to juries during criminal trials, police and video experts said.

Ed Primeau, an audio and video forensic expert in the Detroit area, uses video from surveillance cameras, cellphones and other sources to testify in high-profile legal cases. He gathered evidence for the Indiana Pacers when they were fighting a lawsuit connected to the 2004 brawl in which Ron Artest charged into the stands after a fan tossed a beer at the player.

"That video has a bigger voice than people who testify," Primeau told The Gazette.

Primeau has worked with shopping malls to install high-tech video cameras that pan and tilt to allow mall security to view more areas and follow crimes in progress. But a simple system with high-resolution video could be installed for less than $2,000, he said.

"Why wouldn't someone who owns a mall want it?" Primeau asked.

Tom Conley, president and chief executive officer of the Conley Group, a private security company in Urbandale, said some businesses don't want video surveillance because it might show inadequate response to a crime.

"They could believe it's a liability if they put it in because then there's a record demonstrating inadequate security," Conley said. 


A southwest Florida mall removed its video surveillance after a sheriff's deputy was arrested in 2010 for molesting a teenage boy in the mall restroom, according to a 2011 investigation by the Naples Daily News and the NBC television affiliate.

Surveillance video showed the deputy going into the men's bathroom 36 times in 60 days, sometimes spending hours inside. By 2011, the cameras in Coastland Center Mall were gone, the news outlets reported.

Having video doesn't always mean a slum dunk for police, Kron said. He's dealt with several cases in which high-resolution videos have been made public, but no one comes forward to identify the suspects.

"Twenty years ago, we all thought video was the answer," Kron said. "But it's only part of the solution."

Coralville considered an ordinance a few years ago that would have required convenience stores to have video surveillance, but abandoned the plan. Iowa City does not require retailers to have video cameras.

Here is the New Cedar Rapids video surveillance policy

Who must comply?

Banks, credit unions, carryout food and drink establishments, coin dealers, convenience stores, firearm dealers, hotels and motels, liquor stores, mobile communication dealers, money-transmission services, payday loan businesses, pawn brokers, pharmacies and scrap metal dealers

What do they need to do?

Businesses must install a video-surveillance system that records video 24/7 and keep video footage for 30 days. The ordinance requires one camera per cash register or check-out stand, one at each entrance/exit and one in the parking lot.

How soon?

Businesses have until May 16 to install the systems.

Or else what?

Businesses without working surveillance systems are subject to a civil penalty of up to $500.