Camera

Nearly 100 women, fearing that a Johns Hopkins gynecologist secretly videotaped and photographed them, contacted police Tuesday, and some potential victims reached out to private attorneys contemplating legal action. Police revealed Tuesday that at least some of the images were captured with a camera hidden in the top of a pen, and authorities were exploring whether the recordings had been distributed. The doctor, Nikita A. Levy, was found dead of an apparent suicide Monday. Police are treating the case as an open criminal investigation, and the Johns Hopkins board of trustees has opened a separate inquiry.

Baltimore transportation officials have set high expectations for the city's new speed cameras, telling state lawmakers the devices won't be susceptible to errors that plagued the system over the past three years. "We won't have this problem moving forward," said Barbara Zektick, acting deputy transportation director, at a recent briefing for the city's legislative delegation. "The new cameras have tracking radar," said Frank Murphy, the agency's acting director. But radar experts say tracking radar isn't necessarily the cure-all it might seem.

Fourteen-year-old Caitlyn Fernandes of Dayton has dreams of one day being an actress, but when she landed a role in a television special that will air this week on Maryland Public Television, it wasn't the bright lights that attracted her attention. It was the dolphins. Filming for the show, "The Great Aquarium Treasure Hunt," took place after hours over several days at the National Aquarium in Baltimore . For the Glenelg High School freshman, it was a dream come true. "I'm really into animals, so seeing all of the aquatic life was my favorite part," she said.

Email exchanges obtained through the Public Information Act offer a glimpse at how the Rawlings-Blake's administration has responded behind the scenes to The Baltimore Sun's ongoing coverage of problems with the city's speed cameras. And they show some top city officials scrambling to respond to the evolving story and seize control of the message - sometimes in error. In mid-November, two days before The Sun published its months-long investigation, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's press office was preparing to issue a news release trumpeting its own finding that most ticket recipients live outside the city.

Quick: Name the school closest to North Charles Street and Lake Avenue in North Baltimore. Stumped? The city's Department of Transportation has the answer: It's the Bryn Mawr School, less than a half-mile southwest of the intersection as the crow flies over the trees and side streets. The distance matters. Charles and Lake is the site of one of the city's 75 permanent speed cameras. Under state law, the devices must lie within a half-mile of a school, or 2,640 feet. With its hundreds of schools, Baltimore is essentially one giant potential school zone, as the accompanying map shows.

Members of the Baltimore County Council on Monday approved spending $3.7 million on school safety equipment, including cameras, improved electronic entry systems and a new visitor ID system. County police, county officials and school leaders proposed the package last week, and the plan was added to the capital spending bill council members voted on Monday. Under the plan, the county will expand the use of cameras in schools, and the video will stream live to police patrol cars, precincts and command staff at police headquarters.

A top city official said Monday that 10 of Baltimore's 83 speed cameras are now operational - a month after the entire network was shut down during a troubled transition to a new vendor. Khalil Zaied, deputy chief of operations for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, also told City Council members during a lunch that about 15 of the city's red light cameras are now working. On Jan. 1, Baltimore's speed and red light camera system experienced a complete shutdown during what city officials called a problematic transition to a new contractor.

District judges in Baltimore threw out just over half of the 3,000 speed camera tickets they considered last year after hearing appeals from motorists, city records show. By contrast, in the second half of 2011 (the city didn't provide records for the first half), judges upheld barely 30 percent of the driver challenges heard. And in 2010, only a quarter of ticket recipients who appealed won in court, based on limited figures given by the city. It's not clear why judges as a group have increasingly sided with motorists - and against the machines that have cranked out more than 1.6 million $40 citations in the city since late 2009.

It seems you are talking from both sides of the issue in your editorial on the new speed camera contract that has been awarded ("Playing fast and loose," Jan. 24). First, you are all over Xerox, the former contract holder, for faulty equipment and issuing tickets to innocent people. Then you call for Brekford Corp.'s head for not having the software to run the same faulty equipment you complained was issuing bogus tickets. Brekford Corp. now has a chance to install their equipment and rectify the mess that Xerox's equipment left our city.

Members of Baltimore's legislative delegation in Annapolis chastised city transportation officials Friday for problems with the city's lucrative network of speed cameras. Del. Brian McHale called it "unjust" that the city won't try to identify, and refund, every erroneous ticket issued. Del. Curt Anderson said he thought existing state law barred the city from paying its contractor a share of each $40 fine, a view shared by Gov. Martin O'Malley. And a skeptical Del. Nathaniel Oaks asked city officials what they'll do after finding that a motorist paid a ticket that shouldn't have been issued.