Duluth PD Increasing Use of New Surveillance Cameras
Posted at: 10/19/2012 5:56 PM
| Updated at: 10/19/2012 11:04 PM
By: Alan Hoglund
ahoglund@wdio.com
It's an investment the Duluth Police Department says will make their officers safer, and catching criminals a whole lot easier.
The department told Eyewitness News, it's starting to actively use about 30 cameras strategically placed around downtown Duluth.
In a back office at the new Public Safety Building Friday afternoon, Sgt. Jayme Carlson showed us a computer screen filled with almost a dozen different video feeds.
Carlson said the cameras are focused on locations that have been trouble spots for crime in the past.
"It's incredible," Carlson said about the new technology. "Just to have eyes on the street all the time without actually having to put an officer there standing on the corner, and to have it recorded all the time, is great."
Carlson said there are 48 cameras scattered around Duluth's downtown and near Lake Superior. He said about 12 of those were installed about 1 1/2 months ago.
But the cameras are catching more than alleged criminals, according to Carlson. He showed us video of a car accident. All of it can be used in court as evidence, for whatever the case may be. "If something does happen we can go look at the video later and get a real good idea of what happened, sometimes we can pull suspect pictures off, or vehicle license plates that sort of thing," he said.
Mounted on the top of light poles, Carlson said the cameras turn 360 degrees, and are all controlled with computers back at the Public Safety Building. Federal grant money paid for the cameras, according to Carlson. He said in the future he'd like the video feeds to be monitored at all times.
 |
Print Story | | |  |
