Charlottesville City Council decided Monday to proceed with Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo's proposal for research into the installation of security cameras in the downtown area of Charlottesville. The proposal and the impending research, however, met skepticism from city residents and Council members.
Council will not make a final decision regarding Longo's proposal for 10 cameras to be placed on Water Street, 15 on the Downtown Mall and five on Garrett Street until after Longo's research is completed.
According to Longo, the cameras could allay some of the pressure resulting from an officer shortage within the City's police department, noting that the cameras will not replace the officers, but will act as an additional tool for the department to use.
During Monday's Council meeting, Longo addressed some of the issues Council members have raised about the proposed system.
"We [the police] have developed a policy to respond to some of the Council's questions and concerns," Longo said, citing concerns regarding discrimination by officers viewing the tape, limited tape access and image retention.
Some members of the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville and local residents spoke in favor of the camera system.
"The downtown area has a concentration of likely targets -- people shopping and going to the movies -- cameras are an effective way to cover the area," downtown resident David Repasse said.
Downtown gallery owner Morgan Perkins echoed Repasse's sentiments, noting that cameras would encourage people to bring their children downtown and still feel safe.
Not all Council members and city residents, however, supported the plan.
According to city resident Collette Hall, the cameras will not make a large enough impact to warrant their $300,000 price tag, adding that if the business owners downtown are concerned about crime in the area, they should pay for the cameras themselves.
Charlottesville Mayor David Brown echoed Hall's skepticism, adding that the cameras would not affect the type of crime people are most concerned about -- violent crime.
According to Brown, a stronger police presence would address citizens' concerns about violent crime, not the cameras.
"The cameras are about preventing property crime, and that isn't what people are scared of," he said. "I will say that if we are not going to move forward to support the cameras, then in the next budget, we have to be ready to better support the police department in money and pay."
Council member Kevin Lynch agreed with Brown's hesitancy, saying the cameras could infringe on privacy.
"I am not willing to participate in an incremental encroachment on privacy," he said. "Everyone becomes a suspect."
After debate, Council changed Longo's initial proposal for a centralized system in the downtown area and requested research for a more flexible system that would not feed data into a centralized locale and would allow for movement of cameras. Longo said he is open to the idea of a non-centralized system.
"If the Council is willing to deploy a more flexible system, then we would be happy to do that," he said.
Brown was the only Council member to vote against the proposal to move forward with camera research. Though the other Council members said they are uncomfortable with the centralized system proposal, they consider the research phase of the process to be a positive incremental step.
Council members Dave Norris, Julian Taliaferro and Lynch, as well as Vice Mayor Kendra Hamilton supported the revised plan for camera research as a non-centralized system, but the future of security cameras on the Downtown Mall is still undecided.
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