Residents: Cameras will help fight crime

Date: 15/08/2005
Source:
Author: Lora Hines

JACKSON — Although security ccameras didnt stop terroristattacks from happening last month in London, some Mississippians said such surveillance measures will still serve a vital purpose once installed in the city of Jackson.

The cameras placed around the city will help identify suspects and reduce crime, plus boost homeland security efforts, they said.

City Council President Marshand Crisler said the cameras will be especially useful in identifying illegal dumping, which has been a problem in some areas. "We can go back and get the car tags from the tapes," he said. Crisler was unsure when the cameras would be installed.

Last month, widespread use of security cameras helped London law enforcement officials identify suspects in the city's July 7 bombings that killed more than 50 people, including some of the alleged bombers.

Jackson recently approved spending $41,000 from a $400,000 federal grant to buy 20 cameras. Officials want to put the cameras in undisclosed areas to monitor high-crime areas, government buildings and illegal dumping spots.

The police and fire departments will have access to the monitoring system. The cameras could be moved to different places.

Other police departments across the country, including New Orleans, Shreveport, Chicago and Tampa, use cameras to fight crime. The national American Civil Liberties Union has opposed those operations. The cameras' impact on crime is debatable, studies show.

Nsombi Lambright, head of the American Civil Liberties Union in Mississippi, said she hasn't yet had a chance to talk to city administrators about their plans. She thinks police could solve crime problems using more community-based policing than cameras.

"(Cameras) don't prevent crimes from happening," she said.

Lambright said she wants to know how the city will use cameras, where they will be placed and how people will be trained to monitor them. She fears cameras will be used in a discriminatory way by being placed in areas solely populated by people of color to keep an eye on them.

Ed Worthington, director of the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security, thinks cameras probably could help Jackson in its efforts to fight crime.

"You still have the ability to go back an review the videotape," he said. "They're a great investigative tool."

Some downtown Jackson workers recently had crime prevention on their minds when they thought about the benefits of having cameras around them.

"I think (security cameras) would be great because of the homeless situation," said Nikita Thomas near the AmSouth building. "I think they should put them around this whole block."

But she doesn't think cameras will entirely solve the city's crime problem.

"(Criminals) will be back, though," Thomas said. "(Cameras) won't do that much."

Worker Pam Nicholson said she thinks cameras could be useful if they are properly used.

"They should put three or four in Smith Park because there are all kinds of (criminal) transactions going on there," she said.

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