RANCHO CUCAMONGA--Members of Libertarian and Tea Party Groups in the region are protesting against city police plans to install public surveillance cameras around Victoria Gardens.

The plan by the Rancho Cucamonga Police Department is an effort to help deter crime and to focus law enforcement eyes on areas where criminal behavior may be occurring after a 911 call is made. The cameras are expected to be installed sometime within the year, said Rancho Cucamonga Police Chief Mike Newcombe.

"It's 'big brother' and the fact that they're taking federal grant money when our federal government is broke, and we're contributing to the problem by taking federal funds to implement this camera program," said Jeane Ensley, an organizer for the Inland Valley Patriots, a local chapter of the tea party. "Our federal government is broke and we're contributing to the problem by taking fed funds to implement this camera program. It's an invasion of privacy."

Rancho Cucamonga resident, and past city council candidate Anthony rice, is also among those opposed to public surveillance cameras.

"My main concern is the trampling of our constitutional fourth amendment right to be secure in our person and our property," he said. "I'm against any type of government surveillance."

Rice, and others who spoke out against the public cameras voiced concern over federal government control over local government issues, with "strings attached" to federal funds used for such programs.

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Jillian Ensley, a Rancho Cucamonga resident, and vice chair of the San Bernardino County Libertarians, also took issue with the use of federal funds for the cameras.

"Anytime a public agency is taking a federal grant, there are strings attached," Ensley said. "There is an expectation that we need to do something for the federal government and the federal government has no business in our lives."

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, which serves Rancho Cucamonga as its police service, will install about 20 cameras for the first phase. Plans are to expand the number to other areas as funds become available. The cameras will be placed in public areas near intersections around the major shopping center.

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Libertarian and Tea Party activists oppose Rancho Cucamonga public surveillance cameras