Rape stuns Coolidge Corner residents

“I felt completely safe; I felt fine walking around here,’’ said Alison Brayton, 22. “Not anymore.’’

Police say the victim, a Brookline resident, was forced into a red pickup truck by two assailants at about 2:20 a.m. and driven to an unknown location, where she was raped. She eventually escaped.

Police said they are pursuing a promising lead, an image of the red pickup shot from a traffic camera at the intersection of Beacon Street and Harvard Avenue, said a police spokesman, Lieutenant Philip Harrington.

“We’re really hoping that with this vehicle we can get some leads to solving the crime,’’ he said.

The victim described her assailants as men with Spanish accents, both about 30 years old and about 5 feet 10 inches tall.

The rape was similar to an attack on nearby Winchester Street in May 2008, when a woman walking home from a Red Sox game at 11:30 p.m. was groped and dragged into a car. That woman, who was intoxicated, was able to escape.

The two incidents, however, do not appear to be connected, Harrington said.

With the case unsolved, some women said they will change their habits.

“I’ve walked home from the gym every night, and I’ve never felt unsafe,’’ said one 26-year-old Harvard Avenue resident who only gave her first name, Kate. “I try not to go out alone if it’s too dark, but I don’t always even think about it.’’

Although the cameras might have provided police with a major clue and they have helped solve other cases this year, some residents continue to call for their removal. In June, a majority of Town Meeting members voted to eliminate the cameras, calling them an unnecessary and unwelcome invasion of privacy.

“I’ve never denied that there would be some crime-fighting value out of the cameras,’’ said Marty Rosenthal, who cochairs Brookline PAX, an advocacy group that opposes the cameras. “The tougher question is measuring it and then weighing it against the sentiment of the community. It’s easy to say the cameras will fight crime. It’s much harder to truly measure that.’’

Rosenthal also pointed out that while footage from the surveillance cameras might help police solve the assault, it did not seem to prevent the crime from happening.

Despite the Town Meeting vote, Brookline police have not removed the cameras. Last month, Brookline police Chief Daniel C. O’Leary proposed policy changes that would keep camera lenses covered unless police needed them for their original purpose, to monitor evacuation routes for the Department of Homeland Security, Harrington said.

The Board of Selectmen has not yet made a decision on the cameras. The chairwoman, Nancy Daly, did not respond to telephone or e-mail messages seeking comment yesterday.

Betsy DeWitt, a member of the board, said the fate of the cameras rests in a debate over privacy. The issue is expected to be discussed at the selectmen’s next meeting, scheduled for early next month.

“We have to balance privacy, and we have to balance public safety,’’ DeWitt said.

“To the extent that they do not do harm, then I would certainly lean in the direction of public safety.’’

Matt Collette can be reached at mpcollette@globe.com.