Officials at the Student Recreational Center said they will inform the University Police Department today of reports they received on Monday of an unidentified male who took photographs of female patrons without permission.
“We are taking this seriously and are trying to find this individual,” said Dennis Corrington, director of the Department of Recreational Sports.
The cameraman was reported to Rec Center officials by multiple people, including an aerobics instructor who saw the man taking pictures of her aerobics class, Corrington said.
Katie Hensley, a senior English major, said that she noticed a camera flash behind her during a pre-run stretch on the third floor of the Rec Center near the track. Hensley said she turned to look toward the flash and saw a white male in a blue sweatshirt, but there was no camera visible.
After she started running, a fellow runner told her that he saw the man take a picture of her, Hensley said.
“I was shocked,” she said.
Corrington said a man similar to the description Hensley and the aerobics instructor submitted was confronted by two Rec Center supervisors on duty Monday but was not detained. But the supervisors were unable to hold him after he claimed he did not have a camera, because they did not have enough evidence.
The Rec Center has a policy of not allowing outside cameras inside the facility to protect the privacy of its patrons and control the image of the Rec Center, Corrington said. Photographers must have Rec Center permission before bring a camera into the facility.
He said this is the first incident in which someone has reportedly brought a camera into the Rec Center.
“The Rec is a pretty secure place. A situation like that could happen even with heightened security,” Corrington said. “The only thing we can do is respond once it happens.”
DeAun Woosley, fitness director for the Rec Center, said aerobics classes are inaccesible to onlookers because they are on the third floor and can be observed only from that floor through a small window in the door.
Corrington said people should report anyone seen with a camera to Rec Center officials.
“If it had been reported quicker we could have had a positive ID,” Corrington said.
UPD Director Bob Wiatt said taking photographs without the subject’s permission is a civil offense, and criminal charges can be enforced if those pictures are published on any medium, including the Internet.