CAMERAS DON’T CUT CRIME RATE
Date: Mar 21, 2005 4:48 PM
PUBLICATION: The London Free Press
DATE: 2005.03.21
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: A1
ILLUSTRATION: photo of CHERYL MILLER
BYLINE: JOE BELANGER, FREE PRESS CITY HALL REPORTER

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CAMERAS DON’T CUT CRIME RATE
A NEW STUDY GOING TO A CITY COMMITTEE TONIGHT BRINGS CALLS FOR A PROGRAM REVIEW.

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London’s downtown cameras aren’t bringing down the crime rate, a new study has found.

And one of the downtown’s council champions says it may be time to review the system.

“These cameras are expensive to buy and maintain and, as a city, I think we
have to decide if we’re getting the best value for our dollar,” said Coun.
Cheryl Miller.

“I don’t like throwing good money after bad.”

A report going tonight to council’s community and protective services committee
concludes the cameras haven’t brought down the crime rate.

But, the report states, the cameras are helping police in their work.

Last year, there were 157 cases in which the cameras helped alert police to incidents,
such as an assault, mischief or medical emergency.

Police also reviewed camera recordings to help in investigations 103 times.

The $200,000, 16-camera system, paid for through donations, initially cost about
$240,000 a year to run. It now operates on an annual budget of $117,000, using part-time
monitors.

Most of the cameras are mounted on light poles in an area bounded by York, Ridout,
Dundas and Clarence streets. There are four cameras outside that area.

The cameras are programmed to blackout residential areas to protect privacy.

Miller said a key emerging issue is the push to convert upper floors of core businesses
to residences.

“Once people are living in those upper floors, there will be more and more
blackout areas,” she said. “What’s the good of a camera if you can’t see
anything?”

Lindsey Elwood, chairperson of the downtown Business Improvement Area, agreed it
may be time to review the initiative.

But Elwood said there’s no need to abandon the camera program, especially since
the cameras are paid for and in place.

“I think it has an impact and there’s no question it’s helping police,”
Elwood said. “But I do think it could be more effective. Whether it’s helping
people feel safer downtown, I’m not sure. We should probably step back and see what
we can do to make it more effective.”

Downtown advocates say safety in the core is a key to revitalization.

Shmuel Farhi, London’s biggest downtown landlord, has called repeatedly for measures
to improve safety in the core, including more police.

The cameras were installed after a spate of downtown stabbings — two of them fatal
–and were intended to help police respond more quickly to crime and help identify
suspects, which they have.

But a March 10 shooting after bars closed, following several recent stabbings in
the area, have renewed questions about safety.

Like the police, Elwood isn’t convinced that crime downtown is any different than
elsewhere in the city.

“I think it’s more of a perception about safety,” Elwood said. “Sometimes
perception is not reality and I don’t think it’s an accurate perception. If I go
downtown at 3 a.m., I don’t feel threatened. I feel safe.”

The report going to council tonight backs him up.

“The London downtown core is, and continues to be, a safe place day or night,”
concluded the report, authored by David O’Brien, the city’s manager of corporate
security.