Sunday, January 31, 2010
News, Atlanta

Mechanicsville gets security cameras

“Nothing takes the place of a police officer being there or coming soon.”—Dwanda Farmer, Mechanicsville resident

Midtown Blue’s Col. Wayne Mock.
Robert Manfredi

By Robert Manfredi

       Mechanicsville’s new cameras should be up and running by the end of February, according to the Atlanta Police Department. This is great news for a blighted, gang-infested neighborhood profiled in The Sunday Paper story “Insecure” (News, Jan. 24).

    But an expert on security cameras says they’re only part of the solution to neighborhood crime problems.     
  
    Col. Wayne Mock, public safety manager for the private security alliance Midtown Blue, says success depends on the partnership between the community and the police, with the cameras in a supporting role.

       Midtown Blue monitors its 42 cameras 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Mock says the footage captured by the cameras has helped secure 700 arrests since November 2005, when the first camera went up. They have helped to curb panhandling problems including those related to “drunk and disorderly” and “acting in a violent manner” charges, been used to address other “quality of life” issues, and aided in identifying and catching bank robbers.

    “The camera’s a good employee. It takes no sick leave, no vacation,” says Mock, who has 45 years of police experience. “It can work on Sunday. It can work all night long. It doesn’t get H1N1. It just continues to work as long as you are monitoring it.”

    But Mock is quick to point out that the APD has to use the cameras correctly in order to see positive results in neighborhoods like Mechanicsville.

       “The cameras have to be recorded, [and] you have to set a date,” he says. “You have got to have your equipment good enough where you have the ability to record them, and the monitoring is extremely important because when you monitor, you get into the preventative mode.”

       He also says having signs up informing the public the cameras are there is crucial.

    “You need to let people know,” he says. “There’s no legal reason to put it up, but I think it’s  preventative to put the signs up and say, ‘yeah, you’re under 24 hour surveillance by … [the] Atlanta Police.’”

    Research showing the deterrent effect of cameras on crime has been around since the early 1990s. A study conducted for the National Association of Convenience Stores in 1991, using a sample of 81 stores, showed a 53 percent decrease in robberies after the first year of video surveillance. A 1993 study produced by the criminal justice department at Long Island University found that serious crimes, with the exception of rape, dropped by about half after surveillance systems were installed by businesses and homeowners in Long Island, N.Y.

    Once the cameras are up in Mechanicsville and the signs are posted, Mock says they will produce results if the APD “train[s] their employees, and the officers take part in it, [because] it’s a partnership between the residents of Mechanicsville … the property owners,” and the police.

    According to Mock, there needs to be a united effort by residents, business owners and the police department “to make sure this system’s working, the officers are responding.”

       The neighborhood, he says, “will benefit the first day they [the cameras] go up from a security standpoint. If the camera system is installed properly, and monitored properly, and the police take part in the partnership, you will see a crime reduction fairly quick.”

       Mock gives an illustration of how the cameras can be most effectively used: First, there is a 911 call. “Say it’s a theft by taking, some guy stealing something … and the officer is two miles away.” The camera’s image closest to the crime, he says, becomes the focus. Then, “the dispatcher can monitor it, and they can record, so it’s a real good deal.”

    TeleNavigators, the security camera vendor for the Mechanicsville rollout, has developed a community security program called Partner Against Crime Together (PACT), aimed at discouraging repeat offenders.

    According to TeleNavigators President Dave Klepp, PACT is made up of his company and the City Of Atlanta, the Atlanta Police Department, the Mechanicsville Civic Association, ACORA (Atlanta Renewal Community Coordinating Responsible Authority), Summech CDC, the Peoplestown Revitalization Corporation, the Atlanta Police Foundation, and numerous other organizations.

    PACT has so far sought to deter recidivism by working with Alternate Life Path Program (ALPP), a 30-year-old not-for-profit on the border of Mechanicsville and Peoplestown.

    “Unfortunately, ALPP had to shut down their larger support program due to a lack of funding, so any monetary contributions would be greatly appreciated,” Klepp says via e-mail. “They were burglarized the day before Christmas and lost seven PCs and a projector that were used for at-risk youth training and re-education. Thus, ALPP is very interested in talking to anyone willing to donate computer equipment.”

    TeleNavigator is in the process of installing a donated camera security system to help protect ALPP in the future.

    PACT also organizes monthly service projects at ALPP on the second Saturday of each month.

    Dwanda Farmer, a resident of Mechanicsville who recently ran unsuccessfully for a spot on the City Council, welcomes the cameras and is enthusiastic about community efforts, but she offers one caveat: “Nothing takes the place of a police officer being there or coming soon.” SP

To learn more about how to help ALPP, visit www.alternatelifepaths.com/donate.html

News Editor Stephanie Ramage contributed research to this article.