Chief Beck Announces Expansion Of Safety Cameras In Four Public Housing Developments

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This morning Chief Charlie Beck, joined by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Police Commission President John Mack, Councilwoman Janice Hahn, Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) President and CEO Rudolf Montiel and community leaders, today announced the expansion of safety cameras to the Jordan Downs, Nickerson Gardens, Imperial Courts and
Ramona Gardens public housing developments.

“Safety cameras have proven to be a powerful law enforcement tool to deter crime,” said Mayor Villaraigosa. “The expansion of the safety cameras will help assure our police department has the resources it needs to secure our families and communities.”

As part of a partnership between the LAPD and HACLA, the new 126 safety cameras will be linked into a video system monitored by the City’s police department. The new cameras will also be equipped with the fixed and mobile Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) system that will be installed in the four public housing developments. 

The camera expansion project will connect existing camera systems at Avalon Gardens, Mar Vista Gardens and Pico Gardens to the LAPD’s monitoring systems. The Department will also have the ability to monitor the cameras at police stations closest to the area of the cameras—giving the Department the ability to respond quickly to emergency situations. 

The safety camera expansion will be funded by a $7 million grant awarded to the Housing Authority for the City of Los Angeles, as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. 

The use of safety cameras has proven to deter crime, with preliminary studies reporting a 40% reduction in overall crime at Jordan Downs a year after being installed.

Comments

[youtube is Power]

Since the footage of those cameras will not be available to the public, the public should still use their cameras to record any police misconduct. Youtube is power.

[FTO]

Why don't you use your cameras to shoot footage of people committing crimes instead of supposed "police misconduct". Wouldn't it be better if you worked with us instead of trying to get us in trouble since we are the ones protecting you? My experience is that the people that hate us are the first ones to call us when they get into trouble. Youtube, maybe we should go into your work and make complaints to your boss about you so that you can see how it feels.BTW, feel free to come out and video me anytime that you like. Just like the overwhelming majority of my fellow officers, I do my job in a professional manner.

[Cameras for Quality Control on the Streets]

It's just a means of quality control, chief. And yes in my work there are video cameras to prevent misconduct and to record good behaviour. So don't take it personally. Everyone behaves when there's a camera. It's when you don't know there's a camera, that's difficult. Character is what you do when you know no ones looking (ie biking kicking, etc.)

[tessair]

FTO,the reason we record police misconduct is becausem were sick of being tax payers if we fund the police to beat up folks when there havin a bad day!

[FTO]

Tessair, We handle approximately 4,000 incidents a day. That adds up to about 120,000 per month and 1,440,000 per year. You and some of the other naysayers here choose to focus on the less than one percent that might appear to be negative instead of all of the positive ones. I have never seen any of my fellow officers "beat somebody up because they are having a bad day". In fact, in the majority of uses of force that I have been involved in or witnessed, the exact opposite has been true. Less force than authorized has usually been used.