Camera

THOUGH FOR years I favored cameras in courtrooms, I have concluded that the issue needs a lot more thought than people in my profession were willing to give it when the issue first arose.The old argument went something like this. We TV journalists are no different from print journalists, and it's high time that the Fourth Estate stopped treating us like second-class citizens.Television's position in journalism is no longer an issue. When we first fought that battle, we suffered from an inferiority complex.

As the traffic signal turned yellow, a silver Honda SUV heading north on South Caton Avenue sped up. It beat the red light, but not before a flash went off as a camera snapped a picture of its license plate. The driver would likely receive a $40 ticket in the mail, courtesy of the Baltimore City Department of Transportation - another victim of the most prolific speed camera in the city. The camera, which has resided at the intersection of Caton and Benson Avenue since November 2009 and was one of the city's first, is responsible for more than 85,000 tickets - thousands more than any other in the city.

BOSTON -- From time to time, my husband and I ask each other a humbling question about the human condition: How would you like to see your 10 worst moments on videotape? This is the fate that befell Madelyne Gorman Toogood last month when she was captured on a security camera in a department store parking lot. The mother was taped slapping around her 4-year-old daughter as they got into their SUV. Ms. Toogood got to see this moment -- which we sincerely hope was one of her 10 worst -- again and again and again.

In a recent story about new speed camera tests, Frank Murphy, Baltimore's deputy transportation director for operations, addressed the camera network's error rate by stating "I'm not really concerned what the error rate is, we just want to reduce it" ("New speed camera tests," Dec. 1). I think perhaps it's time for city officials to be concerned about the error rate; instead of just reducing it, how about instead getting it down to zero? An investigation by The Sun found that the city continued to operate a camera on Cold Spring Lane months after learning it had issued incorrect speed readings.

NASA has selected a Johns Hopkins University design for a $30 million camera to be installed in the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in 1999.The Hubble Advanced Camera for Exploration (HACE) will be a major advance over the telescope's current camera, the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2. That instrument was installed during the space shuttle Endeavour's rescue mission last December.HACE will greatly enhance the telescope's "superlative imaging capabilities well into the next century," said Dr. Edward Weiler, NASA's Hubble program scientist.

Nobody telecasts more Orioles home games than Home Team Sports. So, when the club and the Maryland Stadium Authority were considering television needs for Oriole Park at Camden Yards, they took the logical step of involving HTS."We are the ones that basically designed the broadcast end," said Bill Brown, an HTS producer of Orioles games.And one of the improvements at OPACY -- the stadium name that beats ring around the collar -- is really the pits. That's as in camera pits.On either end of both dugouts, camera pits have been designed for improved television shots, Brown said.

The TV Repairman:The European Broadcast Union will be providing the pictures (world feed) for the World Cup beginning today (3:05 p.m., defending champ Germany vs. Bolivia on ESPN) with the U.S. carriers (ABC and ESPN) utilizing extra cameras to put its stamp on the show.Mainly, what this means is the wide shot of the action (favored in Europe) will prevail and the American networks' fascination with the close-up of the athlete spitting, cursing, scratching or whatever kept within reason.

"The Best of Leon," "My Favorite Leon Part," "Leon Awesomeness" — these are all YouTube titles. The clips are taken from Larry David's long-running HBO sitcom, "Curb Your Enthusiasm. " In the videos, David, the show's neurotic protagonist, is a mere foil. That's because the real star is 47-year-old comedian J.B. Smoove, aka Leon Black and the outspoken half of one of TV's funniest — and unlikeliest — odd couples. Smoove, a former "Saturday Night Live" writer, has been featured on TV (Fox's "'Til Death")

A veteran Anne Arundel County police officer who admitted placing a camera in a boys bathroom at Glen Burnie High School told investigators that he was trying to deter smoking of marijuana and cigarettes there, according to police reports. The officer was identified in the reports as the school resource officer, Allen Marcus, a 14-year veteran of the department. He had been placed on administrative leave during the investigation and has been reassigned to a patrol unit, according to a spokesman.

Anne Arundel County police said Tuesday that no criminal charges will be filed against an officer who placed a camera in a boys' restroom at Glen Burnie High School. But the officer involved in the incident, who was not identified, remains on administrative leave. In a statement, police said they had conducted an investigation in conjunction with the Anne Arundel County state's attorney's office, and "based upon the evidence, no criminal laws have been violated, and therefore the officer involved in this incident will not be criminally charged.