Soon, when you belly up to the bar at Shirley's Honey Hole on East Oliver Street, police will know when you've had your first, second and even third beer. From three miles away at the Citiwatch command center on Howard Street, they will be able to watch you buy a drink for the woman on the corner stool, stumble to the bathroom and challenge someone to a brawl.
As part of a settlement to keep police from padlocking her establishment as a "public nuisance" linked to drug dealing and violence, the owner agreed Tuesday to install surveillance cameras not only outside but also inside her bar, complete with a live video feed to police.
The more than 450 cameras proliferating in Baltimore watch over public spaces, though many private institutions - including some colleges - allow city police access to their video connections. But placing a live camera feed inside a private business is a first for the city, an isolated but unprecedented expansion of an already elaborate system by which police keep watch over the citizenry.
It's unclear whether this approach will be used in future padlock cases or if it was a one-time negotiating tool agreed to by the bar's longtime owner, 60-year-old Shirley Barner. Under her deal with a city attorney representing the police, Barner acknowledged that her establishment fits the definition of a public nuisance and agreed to shut it down for the month of October and to hire a security guard when she reopens.
"This is a compromise," Barner said. "I have to do what's best."
The agreement meant Tuesday's hearing at police headquarters to determine whether the bar should be padlocked was canceled. Police had been prepared to argue to an administrative law judge that drug dealers worked from the vestibule and hid narcotics inside the bar, and that a spate of shootings in June was linked to patrons engaged in illegal activity.
Barner denied that drug dealers worked out of her bar and said it's unfair to hold her responsible for what happens outside. About a dozen supporters came to speak on her behalf. Guss Beblett, 76, broke down in tears at the thought of being without his bar for a month.
"She can't run the outside streets," he said of Barner. "I hate what's happening to her."
Police have padlocked one bar and one liquor store - whose lawyer is challenging the constitutionality of the nuisance law in the state's second-highest court, with oral arguments scheduled for March - and have negotiated agreements at two other establishments. None involved putting security cameras inside.
