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Surveillance
Plan Put on Hold
City will
revisit the issue in 2006
By Bulletin Staff Writer
Citing
a need to reconfigure the scope detail of its proposed implementation,
city officials have announced that they will postpone until
the new year an earlier plan to install video camera surveillance
in public
areas.
Placement of cameras targeting alleys and along certain streets has
been in the works for some time. In February, the City Council decided
to postpone the program after the Bulletin reported that the founder of
the company selected for the project had been convicted of a felony and
little competitive bidding had been undertaken.
The project is in abeyance so that we can reconsider reconfiguring
the system and figuring out what we want to do,” said David Hewitt,
the city’s Budget Director.
“I’m pretty excited about it, quite frankly,” said Capt.
Eric Hamilton of the Compton Sheriff’s station, who is of the opinion
that camera surveillance can be an effective tool in helping his
department combat crime. He mentioned the decision by Los Angeles to install
cameras
along Hollywood Boulevard some years ago in an effort to apprehend
vandals and give police more options in how they police a heavily traveled
thoroughfare
that has segments of crime riddled pockets.
“If we could put them in strategic locations where we could identify
folks who are committing crimes that would be a big benefit to us
and to the citizens,” the captain believes.
The Municipal Law Enforcement Bureau will also be consulted on the
system, as one of its main purposes will be to deter illegal discarding
of furniture, lumber and other items that find their way into Compton’s
streets and alleys. Graffiti is also a social ill that will be reduced
with the installation of the cameras, proponents say.
Hamilton is a fan of using technology to combat crime, particularly
in a city that has Compton’s density. “We’re thinking
outside the box in trying to deal with these issues,” he said. “We
should be as proactive as possible, not be reactionary to everything.”
City officials had hoped to get the project off the ground by the
end of the year, but in the end decided to wait until next year so that
they could implement the aforementioned considerations. “Our target
date is December,” said Asst. City Manager Charles Evans in a September
interview.
Next year, the Los Angeles Police Department is planning to put in
place a project similar to the surveillance plan that Compton wanted to
do earlier this year. The primary difference is that the LAPD plan calls
for camera installment in Jordan Downs, a public housing unit known for
its high volume of crime, including drug-dealing and robberies. Police
and supporters of this technology believe that monitored activity in common
areas can help to curtail crime.
In another development involving video surveillance, a federal monitor
that oversees LAPD urged the city of Los Angeles on Friday to use cameras
in police vehicles. That request has been implemented by many departments
across the nation, but so far LAPD has resisted. The cameras would serve
as a monitor to make sure that police are not mistreating minorities, a
charged often leveled against the police in Los Angeles.
“Anything that’s going to prevent crime and make this community
safer, than I support that,” Hamilton stated. “If it makes
sense, then it’s fine. That’s what we want.”
“At the end of the day, ultimately, if we are going to get a handle
on crime, and we are, it’s going to take the community getting more
involved,” the captain believes. “If people in the community
think that it’s the sheriff’s department’s responsibility
to solely address the crime in the city, than we will not be as successful
as we could be,” he asserted.
“Everybody needs to be involved.”
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