APD rallies for surveillance cameras in high crime areas

Bob Robuck
News 8 Austin
Friday January 25, 2008

New York, San Diego, and Dallas have them, and Austin may get them too--if the Austin Police Department gets its way. Chief Art Acevedo wants to install surveillance cameras on Sixth Street, the Rundberg area of North Austin, 12th and Chicon in East Austin, and the Montopolis neighborhood in East Austin.

The whole point of the high-tech snoops is to curtail crime and put bad people behind bars.

"These technologies are not just effective in terms of reducing crime, but they're very effective in terms of solving crimes," Acevedo said.

Acevedo points to the British terrorist attacks in July 2005 to prove his point. Police cameras played a huge role in tracking down those involved in the bloodshed.

But some, including the American Civil Liberties Union, said the cameras make life difficult for the British. They don't want that way of life here in Austin.

"We don't want to be walking down the streets with voices looming from beyond telling us to put that trash in the trash can, or don't protest, or don't do this, or don't do that," Debbie Russell of the ACLU of Austin said.

Other people said cameras are the only way to control crime in areas where drug deals and violence occur daily.

"I've seen it done in other cities, and it really makes things peaceful where those cameras are," neighbor Paul Henley said.

Federal grants may end up funding the cameras for Austin. APD may also try to use private cameras already on the streets and retired cops to monitor them.

If they are approved by the city, Chief Acevedo said it will take months to get the cameras installed and running. Everything is still in the planning stages.