Baltimore City Avoids Solutions, Subsidizes Big Tech Instead
Until Baltimore City Government is serious about cleaning up city streets, no amount of gimmicks will stop the suffering of City residents
The Crime Wave in Baltimore shows no signs of abating and is desperate for solutions. The Baltimore City Council has settled on a program that will solve nothing:
A new Baltimore City program could earn you a rebate on a doorbell camera if you're willing to help police solve crime.
The city is contributing $200,000 to the Home Security Rebate program as part of its 2024 budget. Officials hope that more doorbell cameras will help police solve crimes…..
….Seeing what is going on is something that the city hopes will benefit police when solving crime.
If enough people get these cameras, police can ask the owners for footage if a crime happens. That, in turn, could lead to answers.
"The idea is that if you purchase a Nest or Ring camera or any of those, police don't have access to the camera, but if there's a crime in the area, they can knock on your door when they're canvassing the neighborhood. They'll know if you have a camera because you're registered in this database, and you're able to share evidence with them to help solve crimes," said Councilman Eric Costello.
Costello said that people who register their camera could get a rebate of up to $150. He said the cameras have been helpful in solving crimes in the past.
"We had a homicide in Federal Hill south back in 2018. That crime was solely solved because of the use of home security cameras and neighbors that were willing to step up and share that information with police," he said.
Lest you think that this is some sort of creative program, it already exists as part of the “CityWatch” program.
So the program already exists. To a point.
If Video Surveillance sounds like something that Baltimore should have already tried. It’s because they have. For decades.
Do they stop crime? Maybe in some areas, where cameras exist. So criminals just take their criminal activity somewhere else and neighborhoods with cameras become the haves and the neighborhoods without cameras become the have-nots.
Do Ring Cameras deter Crime? Well…..
Thieves are targeting video doorbells in Southeast Baltimore. Patterson Park neighbors have reported a string of these thefts in the last month.
Since September 20, the Baltimore Police Department has received 27 reports in the Southeast district. And while cameras are supposed to deter crime, these vandals don’t seem concerned about having their faces recorded.
“Guy just went and pulled it out,” said Tom Prats, who lives near Patterson Park.
Genius…
Baltimore has had a crime problem for decades. For decades Baltimore City Democrats have failed to take productive steps to stop the crime wave. Handing out $200,000 worth of grants that will install a maximum of 1,052 Ring Cameras in a city with hundreds of thousands of residences and buildings is little more than a transfer of city tax dollars from taxpayers to Amazon and Google. It will not, however, prevent a single crime.
Until Baltimore City Government is serious about cleaning up city streets, no amount of gimmicks will stop the suffering of City residents.