NOPD seeks use of residents’ cameras to fight crime
6th June 2016 · 0 Comments
Memorial Day Weekend is considered the unofficial kickoff of summer with temperatures and some categories of crime rising as schools close and many of the city’s youth challenged with finding constructive ways to spend their summer break. As residents celebrated the three-day weekend, some seized the opportunity to commit violent crimes against unsuspecting victims.
During a 24-hour period over the Memorial Day Weekend, a mind boggling 21 violent crimes — 12 carjackings and nine armed robberies — were committed across the city.
Shortly before the crime spree, police were asking business owners and residents to register their private cameras with the severely undermanned NOPD in an effort to improve public safety and solve crimes.
WWL News reported last week that private security cameras dot the Crescent City’s landscape and has become a sign of the times in the Faubourg Marigny.
It is also a sign of how deeply residents have been impacted by the recent rise in violent crime.
Last Tuesday, a crew installed a new state-of-the-art, high-resolution camera system at resident Ed Pluta’s home on Burgundy Street.
“It’s just the security factor,” Pluta told WWL. “It’s the sanctity. It’s the safety. It’s just feeling good within the confines of your own home that you can see what’s going on (and) know what’s happening without having to put yourself out in harm’s way.”
Over the past two weeks, detectives from the NOPD’s 8th District went door to door in the Marigny, asking people to register their crime cameras with the city’s SafeCam NOLA program, which gives police up-to-date contact information for residents and businesses with working cameras.
NOPD Commander Jeff Walls told WWL News that just last month, private cameras helped identify the three men responsible for a series of armed robberies in the Marigny.
“It just helps us so much more with being able to quickly obtain descriptions, put out perpetrator information, it’s just another tool for us,” Walls said. “It’s an eye on the street, 24 hours a day.”
Jeff Bromberger, who owns The Maison, a live-music venue on Frenchman Street, is one of 60 people who recently registered with SafeCam NOLA.
“Detectives came by and I honestly wasn’t aware of the program,” Bromberger told WWL. “As soon as they told us about the program, to me it made perfect sense.”
Back on Burgundy Street, Pluta said police are welcome to his video, but he still has reservations about registering his cameras.
“I don’t want to be part of a registry,” Pluta said. “I don’t know how they would use it.”
Walls responded by saying the program is strictly voluntary and police won’t access any video without the owner’s permission.
“This just gives us the ability to contact them,” Walls said. “We’re not going into their computer. We’re not doing anything like that.”
Bromberger called it a no-brainer.
“As much as we have a police force that’s not to the size we should have, why not take any step we can to help,” Bromberger said.
According to the NOPD, so far more than 3,400 cameras at about 1,000 properties are registered in the SafeCam database.
To register your security cameras, regardless of where you live in the city, visit SafeCam NOLA.
Click “Register Now” in the upper left side of the screen and it takes you directly to the online form.
Meanwhile, the French Quarter Task Force, an off-duty patrol of NOPD officers, is getting some new crime-fighting tools, thanks to New Orleans businessman Sidney Torres.
Torres, who initially funded the patrol and a related smartphone app after his mother was upset about rising crime in the French Quarter and the burglary of his own home, donated another $100,000 last week to pay for better software and three new “customized Smart cars” for the patrol.
“Technology doesn’t stop crime — technology helps people stop crime,” Torres said at a Thursday morning news conference.
“Good technology can help make the teamwork between the public and NOPD more effective,” he continued. “That’s the heart of our mission — working together as one city to tackle our No. 1 problem: crime.”
NOPD officials said Thursday that nine armed robberies were committed across the city over a 24-hour period that began Wednesday. Police added that they believe that at least four of the armed robberies were connected.
The latest string of armed robberies came four days after a string of nine armed robberies on Sunday, May 29. While police also said they believed that several of the earlier armed robberies were also connected, they did not indicate whether they believe any of the latest string of armed robberies are connected to the May 29 armed robberies.
This article originally published in the June 6, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
