SARASOTA - Just about everywhere you go these days, there are cameras of some sort -- the bank, stores, probably even where you work. Many believe the cameras create a sense of security and a safer environment. Now the Sarasota Housing Authority is hoping cameras will do the same on their properties.
The housing authority recently installed 22 cameras on its properties, and residents say the cameras are sort of a last resort in an effort to take back their communities.
“They're top of the line; very powerful zoom capabilities. They see very well at night, so it provides 24/7 video surveillance,” says Bill Russell, executive director of the Sarasota Housing Authority.
The images will be monitored by the housing authority and the Sarasota Police Department. Russell says the housing authority received a grant from HUD that allowed them to purchase the cameras per resident's request. “The residents really wanted us to put these up. So this was not done against the wishes of the residents. The resident council in fact wanted to spend what little money they get…they literally wanted to go down to Best Buy and buy their own cameras.”
“I'm happy as I can be our council was the initiating point, the starting point for these cameras. Because we've tried different things and yet it seemed to not been working,” says Valerie Buchand, president of the Sarasota Public Housing Resident Council.
Buchand says she's hoping the cameras will send criminals the message that they're not welcome in Sarasota's public housing. “We're not trying to invade anybody’s privacy, nor evict folk…all we want is the crime to be detoured from coming into our community where we live.”
Russell says the bottom line is resident safety. “There could be a shooting every once in a while, or certainly some drug activity going on, some fights that are occurring. And obviously our residents have a right to live in a community where that's not going on, so if there’s anything the housing authority can do to deter or prevent it then we're going to do that.”
The cameras are already being put to use. Back in April, two British tourists were killed in a public housing community, and one of the new cameras was already up and running that night.
Housing authority officials say the Sarasota Police Department is in possession of that footage.
