(The Harbormaster’s shed at the opening of the walk-on beach is equipped with multiple cameras, as are other locations.)

No, it’s not paranoia. Someone really is watching you.

This past spring, the Duxbury Harbormaster’s Office installed numerous surveillance cameras at Powder Point Bridge and along the entrance to Duxbury Beach in an effort to monitor the goings-on at the privately-owned beach.

“The cameras at the beach we installed first went up about a year ago,” said Harbormaster Don Beers. “Then we improved upon it, so we have new monitors at the lot, the Powder Point Bridge, the entrance to the back road, we’re monitoring other areas and the Harbormaster’s building.”

Beers said the cameras aren’t there for his staff to watch bathing beauties during slow hours, but to assist his office for law enforcement and public safety purposes only. “We used it the other night when a young man went missing,” said Beers, noting the man was found without incident. “And we had a kid throw a rock through a window and – boom, boom! – we had this on film.”

As a privately-owned area that’s home to federally threatened species, Duxbury Beach benefits from the surveillance program said Beers. The cameras help both his office and the Duxbury Beach Reservation, owners of Duxbury Beach, enforce nighttime restrictions on Gurnet Road. By ordinance, only state and federal vehicles, and those belonging to Saquish residents, are allowed to travel the back beach road after nightfall in order to lessen the chances of a protected piping plover being run over. Charged with protecting the wildlife and human life, Beers wanted to be clear that the surveillance is there on an as needed basis only.

“I’m not an advocate of Big Brother,” said Beers, referring to the dystopian novel by George Orwell. “We’re not watching anybody. We don’t care to watch anybody. But if something happens, we can run the tapes back.”

As evidence, Beers recounted a recent incident when a disgruntled out-of-towner driving what he described as a muscle-truck was turned away at the bridge because he lacked a beach sticker. Later that night, the man returned and drove through the chain blocking the lot. All of it was caught on tape. Beers said he gave the man the option of repairing the damage himself or paying a hefty fine. The man chose to fix the chain.

Town Manager Richard MacDonald said he supports the program and hopes to expand the surveillance system at the beach. He said the system recently instituted at the transfer station would work well at Powder Point Bridge, too.

“Get ready,” said MacDonald, “because we’re working with the Harbormaster to have cameras, like the system we have installed at the transfer station, so it will be less cumbersome to the public and the employees regulating the sticker system.”

Asked if there were simply too many cameras around town and if there was a danger of them being used for ill will MacDonald said no.

“It’s a protective issue,” he said. “Should we have any type of incident at the beach, should it be with the plovers or the public, we’ll have a record. This is not Big Brother.”

Many people when asked said they weren’t aware there was a surveillance system installed at the beach, though there’s a sign informing the public of it on the ocean side of the bridge. Duxbury resident Paul Dowd, out for a walk along the beach, said he didn’t know and didn’t mind either.

“I wasn’t aware we have them, I hadn’t thought of them before,” said Dowd. “With so much going on with children -- I have two young granddaughters -- you’re always looking to see what’s around you and who’s around you. I have no objections to it.”

Beers said he hopes the public knowing about the program will help dissuade those who come to the beach looking for trouble – because they will be caught.

“When you drive across Powder Point Bridge,” said Beers, “and you have an urge to do something wrong, those signs will make you go somewhere else.”