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City not ready to deliver promised cameras in parks
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There is no funding for the long-promised video surveillance cameras to improve safety at Library and Southside parks.

And the reason has to do with a state law that requires the collection of “public records” by cities to be retained for at least a year.

The city had secured and set aside federal Community Development Block Grant funds for the surveillance equipment. The money can only be used in low-income neighborhoods of which the two parks qualify.

As Manteca moved forward with planning for the system they were informed that they needed server storage to hold all recordings for a year before they can be erased. The only way around that in California is to not record the images which would require someone to monitor them 24/7 to make it effective. The camera at the city’s skate park, for example, is monitored periodically by dispatch but not recorded.

The recording of video images has been effective in other jurisdictions in helping catch culprits responsible for crimes and getting them convicted and off the streets.

City Manager Karen McLaughlin said city technology staff is working on a solution. Staff is also trying to secure a funding source to store the images for a year. Meanwhile, if the federal funds weren’t spent the city would have been forced to return them. The council switched the funding to other projects that were ready to proceed.

McLaughlin noted the city could still move forward with the cameras once the server storage problem is addressed and a new source of funding is identified.

Cameras were envisioned more than five years ago as a way to cut down on gang-related crimes , public drinking, and even transients bedding down for sleep. If cameras had been in Library Park last month, they could have helped police nab some of the drive-by shooting suspects that got away. Police were able to arrest one suspect that they pulled over.

The surveillance camera system will actually move forward over the next year when a fiber optic line is buried between the Civic Center at 1001 Center Street and the transit station being built at Moffat and South Main is buried. Federal stimulus funds are covering the cost of the fiber optic line that includes cameras at the transit station. The city also has received federal money to put surveillance cameras in at a number of the bus stops that will have benches and shelters placed at them in the coming months.

McLaughlin said not only could the Southside and Library parks have video equipment that could piggyback on the fiber optic line but it also opens the door for similar cameras to be placed in the downtown district.

The city manager noted such cameras would be used primarily to investigate crimes.

“The police right now will check stores’ surveillance equipment in the immediate area of a  crime they are investigating  to see if they can provide useful information,” McLaughlin said.