NORFOLK
Surveillance cameras will be in place in three high-crime neighborhoods by early January, city officials said Tuesday.
Proposed a year ago and approved last December by the City Council, the cameras were scheduled to be installed this summer in Olde Huntersville, the Pleasant Avenue section of East Ocean View and Denby Park in Wards Corner.
All three neighborhoods are part of Project Focus, an anti-crime initiative that includes increased police patrols, stepped up code enforcement and a rental inspection program.
After the city asked for bids to provide and install the cameras, it was discovered an error was made in the bid package. The project had to be bid again, which caused months of delays.
"I'm OK with it because it was an honest mistake," Councilman Barclay C. Winn said. "It was not intentional, and we're going to get where we need to be."
Barbara Lai, who heads the Office of Community Empowerment, told a council committee that a contract to install nine cameras - three in each of the neighborhoods - will be signed later this week. The cost will be approximately $280,000, with a yearly maintenance cost of $65,000.
Lai said the first three cameras will be installed in Ocean View. Councilman W. Randy Wright, who persuaded city officials to support surveillance cameras, met with City Manager Regina V.K. Williams, Lai and community leaders in Ocean View recently to study crime statistics and select sites for the cameras. City leaders would not reveal the locations.
"I'm pretty comfortable that within 60 days, we'll have cameras up in East Ocean View," Wright said.
Lai said similar community meetings will be held in Denby Park and Olde Huntersville to allow residents input on where the cameras will be installed.
The cameras will not be monitored 24 hours per day, but police will have access to their video tapes.
Arrest and conviction rates will be compared before and after the installation of cameras. Lai said that the council will receive regular updates on the program.
Officials stressed that cameras aren't a panacea.
"They are not going to solve the problems by themselves," Vice Mayor Anthony L. Burfoot said.
Winn said, "They've been successful elsewhere. And they definitely can't hurt."
Harry Minium, (757) 446-2371, harry.minium@pilotonline.com
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$280 Thousand for 9 cameras !!! ?????!!!!!!!!
I think cameras are fine, but sheesh! and that was the LOWEST bid? No wonder the city of Norfolk is taxing us to death, they need to pick up 9 units from Best Buy and call it a day.....
They need to aim one at City
They need to aim one at City Hall..
What about Park Place
this is one of the oldest area's in the city & still has its share of crime. The civic league has done nothing to promote new homeowners in the area, the last time i went to a meeting over on 29th st. a woman in the next block up was throwing beer botles & cursing at a police officer who did nothing. Now you tell me who wants to buy in Park Place.
False Security
I truly hate to burst all of you law abiding citizens bubbles but the installation of cameras wont change a thing in our bad areas of town. Just like someone commented before. They have similar cameras for public view on the mexican border.... We all know those are not stopping anyone from illegal activity. The cameras are nothing more than a political ploy to falsify our comfort and point us further away from the real problem..... POLICE ARN'T DOING THEIR JOBS! If the NPD/VBPD would focus more on our cities real problems versus who's cursing in public, wearing their pants too low, spitting, having an argument, playing their car music too loud, drove down the stip too many times, talking loud, urinating in an alley, and wont take their hands out their pockets I think actual problems might be solved. I live in a bad area of norfolk and too many times the police are arresting and leaving this bad area for cursing or pants are low, or walking with too many people and yet everynight theirs drugs being sold, people being robbed, and gun shots. Plain as day. And yet every other car coming down the street is a "police officer". Our tax money pays for high arrest rates over petty indiscret
Huh?
"a contract to install nine cameras - three in each of the neighborhoods - will be signed later this week. The cost will be approximately $280,000, with a yearly maintenance cost of $65,000."
Am I the only one who thinks the pricing is absurd. No comments Ethan?
The cameras should be
The cameras should be available to everyone via the internet. That was citizens can monitor these cameras and call police when they see something happening. This is done on the Mexican border.
Hmm
Can I have a video handoff and a cablemodem installed at the headend? It'd be cool to stream them all onto the internet.
we've heard this before
"I'm pretty comfortable that within 60 days, we'll have cameras up in East Ocean View," Wright said."
Let's hope this time it gets accomplished, but it's going to be a wait and see. It's not the answere to crime, but it's a step and we need to make as many steps as we can.
Going, Going, Gone
While they're at it, the city ought to put a camera in Hyde Park - right on the corner of Austin and Delano. The few good folks in that neighborhood should keep Norfolk Police on speed dial and do what they can to get rid of the stinking landlords who don't care what kind of illegal activity they attract as long as they get their money!
Cameras
This is where I find fault with the media, Jeez, did they have to go and blab that the cameras will not be monitored 24 hrs a day? Is anything sacred or secret anymore? Now the criminals know they have lag time between the commission of a crime and getaway. Please tell me this was a direct attempt at misinformation to trick the criminals in that area. But, I doubt it, as most city officials aren't that smart.
THE PROBLEM
The problem is that there is too much crime and the police are too busy to get the speeders.:( I had the same problem when I lived in Bayview. The answer is a block watch program,with that you get one police officer assinged to your neighborhood and he can make a difference. You can contact the Norfolk police for info.
For Martin3996:
Dude, every story about Norfolk, you bring up speeding on Bayview Blvd. Give it up, man, give it up. Isn't it clear by now, that you're the only one who cares.....
Cameras
I hope you'll be placing them up high enough to where those gang-bangers can't destroy them, and I hope they'll be of good enough quality that the recordings are sufficient to help prosecute them... otherwise, you waste time and money...
Bayview Blvd. speed limit
Cameras are fine, but I've been communicating to the Police department about the constant speed limit violations on Bayview Blvd., for three years now. Neighbors up and down the street say that they have been raising the issues for years, but the response is insufficient. A permanent solution and greater enforcement need to happend. I'm sure that pulling these cars over and issuing tickets will catch some Ocean View criminals, since cars come from that direction toward Ches. Blvd.