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Rivera calls for security cameras in Springfield

By Sarah M. Corigliano

Assistant Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD Representative Cheryl Rivera (D Springfield) last Tuesday announced she is redoubling her efforts to gain funding for security cameras in the City of Homes.

Rivera is chair of the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security. She wrote the press release announcing her call for "all available resources" to be dedicated to obtaining security cameras a day after her experience near the scene of the city's 18th homicide of the year, which occurred in a shop on Main Street during normal business hours.

She explained to The Reminder that she recently spoke with Edward Flynn, secretary of the Executive Office of Public Safety, and that he plans to make a trip to Springfield to speak to members of the Business Improvement District.

"On Dec. 15 he will meet with the business community to talk about public safety what the plan has been and what the plan will be [to improve safety]," she explained.

She added that the funds allowing State Police to work with the Springfield Police Department are running out, and that she has asked the Finance Control Board to approve funding for both the officers and a security camera system.

The cost of those efforts is about $2 million, she said, with the cameras costing less than $1 million. However, she added the cameras could have a serious impact on police efficiency.

She used the example of Monday's fatal shooting: the two young male assailants were still at large Wednesday afternoon and she said an image of them fleeing the store could have aided in their quick apprehension.

"We had enough police officers two days ago," she explained. "They were working so hard [to find the assailants] ... but a lot of time was wasted."

She said she saw Springfield Police Officers present several different young men to witnesses at the scene, but none of them were a match.

"With cameras, you don't have to rely on that," she said. "Within seconds [you can have an accurate description]. The description fit a lot of young males, but they're still at large."

Rivera said she would like to see cameras placed throughout the city, and that some camera systems allow for locations to be changed if crime drops and the camera is needed elsewhere. She added that the Springfield Police Department has been researching available cameras and monitoring systems, including some that allow the department to immediately send an image from the camera to police cruisers. The final say in the purchasing process has to come from the Finance Control Board.

With cameras, she said, crime prevention increases, apprehension of suspects increases, prosecution and convictions increase and suspects are more easily exonerated if there is an image to show they are not the perpetrator.

In addition to requesting funding for the cameras, Rivera announced last week that she called for 10 more police officers to be added to Springfield's force and that she asked the legislature for $650,000 to go to the Hampden County District Attorney's Office to process the criminals.

Before the summer of 2006, she added, she will "make every effort to improve Springfield's response to crimes and establish more crime prevention programs."



How do cameras work in Holyoke?



In Holyoke, Police Chief Anthony Scott said security cameras have been a success.

He said the cameras were installed earlier this year and that he has seen a positive response to them.

In one case, he said there was an apartment building in the city for which the landlord had a hard time finding renters frequent drug dealing occurred around the property. Scott said placing cameras near the property caused the drug dealers to move, and the apartments are now rented and viable.

He said there have also been several arrests made based on scenes observed from the security cameras.

Since the cameras are on a closed circuit television system and are only focused on public places, he said the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that they do not violate the Fourth Amendment, protecting citizens' rights to privacy.

"They have done what they're supposed to do," Scott explained. "We can't look to [cameras] as a panacea [to crime]."

However, with "good police work and shoe leather," he said, they help quite a bit.