By Rocco Parascandola and Rebecca White
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — The NYPD is bringing 38 new surveillance cameras to high-crime areas in upper Manhattan, including outside some bodegas, officials said yesterday.
“It’s not only an initiative to capture the bad guys but it prevents also crime from occurring,” said Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.). “People know when they see the cameras that their image will be captured.”
Espaillat, speaking at a press conference at the 25th Precinct stationhouse in East Harlem , helped secure the $963,000 in federal funding to pay for the cameras.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the cameras will be part of the NYPD’s network of public and private surveillance cameras.
“They’re essential to crimefighting,” Tisch said. “They help us identify suspects, further investigations and captures video that lets us act quickly and protect the people.”
The new cameras will be installed in East Harlem, Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood. Several will be focused on bodegas.
The United Bodegas of America advocacy group has been pushing for more cameras at stores, which they say can become hot spots for violence.
Tisch noted the near-fatal Randalls Island assault last month of Diane Agudelo , 44, allegedly by Miguel Jirayd, an ex-con out on parole.
“There were no witnesses and her injuries were so severe she couldn’t speak,” Tisch said. “But detectives used Argus cameras to fill in the gaps.”
One camera, she noted, captured the suspect riding the e-bike he stole from the footage, footage that “helped detectives build a timeline, identify the suspect, and arrest him seven days later.”
“Without those cameras,” Tisch said, “that case might still be unsolved.”
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