Are Street Cameras A Big Answer To City Crime?

A visitor appeared on a light pole at Howard Avenue and Spring Street Thursday, looking like an alien eyeball that popped out of its socket. Enoch Cain didn’t notice it at first; when he learned its true mission, he said he hopes it makes the walk to the corner store with his kids safer.

That, in fact, was no alien eyeball protruding from the street light. It was the first of 21 video cameras the police department is placing at crime-plagued corners to help stop crime.

Officials announced Thursday that they’ve put up four cameras so far and expect to have seven of the 21 up by mid-July. They bought the cameras with a $1 million grant.

Right now the cameras will stream live to police headquarters at 1 Union Ave. The cops will keep the recordings for 15 days in case they need them to help investigate crimes.

The goal is eventually to stream them directly to neighborhood substations and district managers’ computers. For now the cameras are going up in the Hill, Newhallville, and Dwight neighborhoods in spots where police have noticed a high number of crimes and citizen complaints. The cops plan to move the cameras around.

Newhallville Alderman Charles Blango  had been waiting for this day. He has been pushing for the cameras in his neighborhood in the wake of months of shootings. (Note: These are different from “red-light cameras.”)

“This may not be the answer to all the problems,” but they should help, Blango said. “If the people won’t speak, the cameras will.”

Assistant Police Chief Tobin Hensgen  said the camera project aims as much at deterrence as collecting evidence. He cited prison studies in which crooks call cameras the number-one factor stopping them from doing ill on a street. “If there are cameras there they’ll go some place else. It has a tremendous effect,” he said.

The Sony SNC-FH164 high-definition dome cameras do have the ability to cover 360-degree terrain. They can also zoom in and provide high-enough definition—thanks to “H264 compression”—to capture the numbers and letters on license plates, Hensgen said. He proved it by offering a demonstration at a press conference at police headquarters, zooming in live from the stream at Howard and Spring in the Hill.

Meanwhile, at Howard and Spring itself, a stream of customers stopping to buy loosies or newspapers or juice or subs at Victor’s Market welcomed the cameras.

“Whatever works,” said Dez Wilkes, a 41-year-old warehouse worker. “I don’t mind. There’s places all over the world that’s got ‘em; I watch TV shows [that feature them]. It’s about time we got ‘em.”

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