Nearly 200 new surveillance cameras will soon roll out into neighborhoods in Fort Worth.
“The council approved $986,000 out of our police department budget to purchase cameras,” Fort Worth Police representative Marc Povero said. “There is a combination of police department budget and some grant money that is going to be used to put these cameras into neighborhoods throughout the city, including the Stop Six neighborhood.”
The city says it will deploy a total of 179 new cameras. The Stop Six neighborhood will see the largest initial deployment, with other areas also getting cameras.
“There is a revitalization of the Stop Six neighborhood, so the city did want to recognize that and use these cameras to go into the Stop Six neighborhood to try to lower crime,” Povero said. “Maybe give the citizens a sense of satisfaction in knowing that the city is actually doing something to prevent and solve crime in the Stop Six Neighborhood.”
The cameras are mobile and can also serve other neighborhoods in the future.
“They are going to be mobile enough to where our officers are going to be able to move them and take them to another area so they are not permanent,” Povero said. “Neighborhood police officers look at crime stats in their area and they can request that the camera systems be brought into their specific beat.”
“These cameras are going to be overt. So, they are not covert. This is not something that we are trying to hide,” he added. “They’ll be in public areas only and they will be on light poles and telephone poles.”
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
Police hope the video will help detectives in solving cases and also serve as a deterrent to crime.
“In this day and age, with the technology that is available, with these types of cameras really can get us into a scene and very clear pictures of possible suspects, suspect vehicles and possibly even crimes taking place,” Povero explained.
Officers already have the equipment to mount the cameras.
“As soon as we get the first delivery of these cameras they will be used immediately,” Povero said.
Police will have 48 hours to save the video after a crime.
“The only time we would pull data off that system is if we had a crime that occurred and those cameras would be looked at to see if there is any video evidence,” he said.
