The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Police Department wants to expand video camera “virtual patrols,” citing a 45 percent drop in crime at MacArthur Park near downtown where cameras were installed as part of a pilot project.
“Basically, what you can do is virtual policing,” Assistant Chief George Gascon said. “You can monitor a significant number of areas without having to have an officer at each scene.”
The cameras are an essential crime-fighting tool in an era of dwindling budgets, he said.
With the MacArthur Park successes, the Police Department wants to expand video camera surveillance in crime hot spots in other areas of the city, including the San Fernando Valley. The cameras cost up to $10,000 each.
“It’s a great idea,” Councilman Dennis Zine, a former LAPD officer, said. “We have limited resources and personnel. We cannot patrol everywhere. It’s great for court. It’s difficult to refute what the camera sees.”
Hollywood police are working on a project to install cameras along Hollywood Boulevard between Highland and La Brea avenues; Newton Division officers are considering cameras at two locations where gang members congregate around a courthouse; and Foothill Division is considering cameras in the Hansen Dam area where drug trading flourishes.
The LAPD has stepped up lobbying efforts with the state, the federal government and private sources to gain enough funding to get cameras installed.
Police credit the cameras with helping cut crime at MacArthur Park, where police said 181 serious crimes were recorded over the last six months, compared with 330 over the same period last year.
Since the cameras were installed in mid-January, more than 150 arrests have been made with the aid of them. Most involved felony narcotics charges.
But Elizabeth Schroeder, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said the cameras simply force criminals to move elsewhere.
“People know the cameras are there,” Schroeder said. “Crime tends to move.”
Additionally, she said, “We are concerned about the Big Brother attitude. There is a real potential for abuse.”