Local
New camera network slated for crime-ridden neighborhood
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
December 21, 2008
The District is partnering with the private sector to purchase and install nearly 30 closed-circuit cameras in the crime-ravaged Trinidad neighborhood, which the Metropolitan Police Department can actively monitor 24 hours a day.
Police Chief Cathy Lanier and Mayor Adrian Fenty on Friday laid out plans for the D.C. version of the Safe City initiative, a privately funded public safety program operating in more than 20 cities including Baltimore, Boston and Compton, Calif.
Target presented the District with a check for $260,000, which will fund the initial five to seven cameras for Trinidad. Twenty more cameras will be installed later, with $500,000 to be raised by the D.C. Police Foundation. Sprint Nextel will provide residents with 200 cell phones, each with a direct link to 911. And two recreation centers will receive $25,000 each to bolster programming.
“These effective policing strategies will continue their momentum into the New Year as we strengthen and modernize our efforts to reduce violent crime, get guns off the streets, and build community relations in Trinidad,” Lanier said in a news release.
Trinidad, in Northeast D.C., has seen at least a half-dozen homicides this year. It has become the police department’s guinea pig of sorts for new public safety initiatives: In June officers set up controversial checkpoints there and barred people from driving through who had no reason for being in the neighborhood. The checkpoints landed the city in court.
“I think what we have is a sense of urgency that the citizens are feeling, and that has been communicated to our leadership, our chief, and she’s stepping up,” said Kathy Henderson, a Northeast community activist.
The creation of a new closed-circuit TV network immediately raised red flags for some. Police already operate a network of 75 neighborhood-based cameras, but never have there been so many installed in one area.
D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson, chairman of the public safety and judiciary committee, said Friday that District law authorizes police to monitor their cameras passively, meaning officers may only look at the tape post-crime — except in an exigent circumstance, which is one that requires immediate action.
“An exigent circumstance is not a generalized crime problem in a particular area,” Mendelson said.
Traci Hughes, Lanier’s spokeswoman, disagreed.
But Mendelson’s overriding concern? Cameras don’t work, he said.
“The best that’s going to come from these cameras,” he said, “is more evidence that they’re not effective.”
Police Chief Cathy Lanier and Mayor Adrian Fenty on Friday laid out plans for the D.C. version of the Safe City initiative, a privately funded public safety program operating in more than 20 cities including Baltimore, Boston and Compton, Calif.
Target presented the District with a check for $260,000, which will fund the initial five to seven cameras for Trinidad. Twenty more cameras will be installed later, with $500,000 to be raised by the D.C. Police Foundation. Sprint Nextel will provide residents with 200 cell phones, each with a direct link to 911. And two recreation centers will receive $25,000 each to bolster programming.
“These effective policing strategies will continue their momentum into the New Year as we strengthen and modernize our efforts to reduce violent crime, get guns off the streets, and build community relations in Trinidad,” Lanier said in a news release.
Trinidad, in Northeast D.C., has seen at least a half-dozen homicides this year. It has become the police department’s guinea pig of sorts for new public safety initiatives: In June officers set up controversial checkpoints there and barred people from driving through who had no reason for being in the neighborhood. The checkpoints landed the city in court.
“I think what we have is a sense of urgency that the citizens are feeling, and that has been communicated to our leadership, our chief, and she’s stepping up,” said Kathy Henderson, a Northeast community activist.
The creation of a new closed-circuit TV network immediately raised red flags for some. Police already operate a network of 75 neighborhood-based cameras, but never have there been so many installed in one area.
D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson, chairman of the public safety and judiciary committee, said Friday that District law authorizes police to monitor their cameras passively, meaning officers may only look at the tape post-crime — except in an exigent circumstance, which is one that requires immediate action.
“An exigent circumstance is not a generalized crime problem in a particular area,” Mendelson said.
Traci Hughes, Lanier’s spokeswoman, disagreed.
But Mendelson’s overriding concern? Cameras don’t work, he said.
“The best that’s going to come from these cameras,” he said, “is more evidence that they’re not effective.”
