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Hickory installs cameras downtown

Robert C. Reed | Hickory Daily Record

A worker installs camera antennas Tuesday in downtown Hickory.

By Richard Gould | Hickory Daily Record

Published: June 18, 2009

HICKORY - Visitors to Union Square may have spotted two men who had shimmied up the city's communications tower behind City Hall on Tuesday.

They climbed up there to install the wireless antennas that will be the backbone of the security camera network designed to keep an eye on parking lots in downtown and the SALT Block.

The Hickory City Council approved the 30-camera security system at its April 21 meeting. The system cost $163,525 and should be operable next month.

"It could be as early as July 4, but it may be mid-July," said Hickory Police Capt. Thurman Whisnant.

During his presentation to the city council in April, Whisnant said a team was established to look into possible security systems and their vendors in response to several incidents in downtown, including two shootings in 2008.

Whisnant said one of the shootings was a murder that happened Jan. 11 in a city parking lot with no camera. The other shooing happened Aug. 24 on the lower level of the city's parking deck. Cameras were already installed there, but the video footage was of such poor quality that no suspects could be identified and the makes of some of the vehicles involved could not be determined, he said.

The new cameras include a mix of standard Internet platform, high definition and pan, tilt and zoom cameras that can be remotely controlled.

Whisnant said police officers are looking forward to having a new tool to use to ensure public safety.

The cameras will provide high-quality video for use in investigations and prosecution of crimes, but their presence should provide a deterrent against criminal activity as well, Whisnant said.

He said police telecommunicators will not be constantly monitoring the cameras, but access to the video feeds will be event-driven. If an officer is called out to an incident occurring where the cameras are in use, the telecommunicators will access the video feed and provide updates to the officers to prepare them for what they are about to encounter, Whisnant said.

An additional benefit to the new camera system is that the surveillance system's price includes installing public and private wireless Internet "Wi-Fi" capability in Union Square.

"People will be able to do business by accessing the Internet on their laptops while sitting on the park benches at Union Square" Whisnant said. "That's just another marketing tool for the downtown business community."

The system's infrastructure is designed to be easily expanded should the city decide to add more cameras, he said.