VIDA Reverses Course on Cameras in Men’s Locker Room

metroweekly.com:

Metro Weekly.The local gym chain, frequented by many members of the gay community, operates six locations throughout the D.C.

metro area. It has announced plans to install security cameras in portions of the men’s locker room at the gym’s Logan Circle location to stop locker thefts.

Locker thefts — which, thus far, have only become a problem in men’s locker rooms — have increased at VIDA’s U Street and Logan Circle locations, according to von Storch.Typically, thieves operate in teams of two, gaining access to the facilities and entering the locker room, where one member acts as a “lookout” from the sink area, while a second smashes combination locks and attempts to steal items from lockers.“Within the last week, we had two people arrested for breaking and entering, stealing items from lockers,” von Storch said. “And, by the way, it’s not like there are 50 thefts a day.

So stopping one theft is a really big deal.”The proposed security cameras were intended to be installed near the sink area and the areas where people walk, not in areas where people would be in various states of undress.