Police officials in Charlottesville, Va., are recommending the city purchase and install video surveillance cameras throughout the downtown area to increase public safety, according to a newspaper report.
The security cameras would help deter criminal activity in the city center and aid authorities in their investigations of crimes by providing surveillance footage, Police Chief Timothy Longo told The Daily Progress.
A formal proposal has not yet been drafted for the city council to consider, according to the newspaper. However, police are suggesting the city purchase about 30 cameras.
The combination of the Virginia Tech shooting and a recent spate of assaults in the vicinity of the city’s downtown mall have given the debate over security cameras new momentum and led the police department’s recommendation to be forwarded to city officials.
Several city officials have expressed reservations about the surveillance concept, saying they fear a “Big Brother” approach to policing may infringe on the rights of residents.
Councilmember Kendra Hamilton told the newspapers that security cameras on the mall “make me uneasy,” adding that she is interested in seeing the city’s resources be devoted to other ways to combat crime.
“Are there steps we can take to get us those results without going down the road that leads to ‘1984’?” Hamilton said.
But authorities insist that cameras are a cost-effective way to prevent criminal activity, serving as a “visible deterrence,” Longo said. Cities across the country have found cameras to be an effective prevention tool, he added. In Baltimore, where Longo worked in the late 1990s, cameras in several neighborhoods resulted in a “sizable decrease in activity simply because of [their] presence.”
