Ocean City Towers Also Keep an Eye on Tourists

The twelve new small cell towers Crown Castle just installed on Ocean City’s (MD) Boardwalk, do more than help shoregoers send selfies to their friends, they are a part of the resort’s City Watch surveillance system, according to OC Today. The towers have cameras on each pole, although they don’t serve to feed the social media beast.  City Engineer Terry McGean said “It’s not a feed we put on the web, it’s a feed we use internally for public safety.”  It is part of a camera surveillance system the city has throughout the town, as all recordings feed into “The Watch,” McGean told OC Today.

The initial proposal for the towers was rejected by the city council in April of 2017 (see Inside Towers’ story “Ocean City Keeps Kicking Sand in Crown’s Boardwalk Plans”) but Crown went back to the drawing board with suggestions of a more camouflaged pole that fit the surroundings and helped aide city safety requirements. The new plans were more to the city’s liking, and in July of 2017, the council voted 5-to-2 in favor of the sites, with Crown footing the bill for the cameras, OC Today reported.