They're up, but just how many of the New Orleans crime cameras are running? Not all of them are. Yet last May, Mayor Ray Nagin presented his own time line for progress on the crime cameras.
"We expect to have 200 fully operational by July," said Nagin. "No more delays, no more excuses."
"We have 213 actually recording as we speak here today," said Bob Young NOPD Public Affairs Commander.
While Young is unsure of how many non-functioning cameras are mounted throughout New Orleans, the Nagin administration has in the past put the total camera count at 248.
Young says there are different functioning stages for the city's crime cameras. Some are just posted, according to Young, but are not hooked up to electricity. While others are, he says they do not have the ability to record and can only send live video back to police stations. As for the cameras now operating at the highest level of functionality, the NOPD and the mayor's office now say the count is 213. Young says NOPD officers have already put them to good use.
"We're able to view the recorded image of the crime going down and surely that helped in the investigation," said Young.
The NOPD is not releasing, however, specific information as to which cameras are working. Young says, "Just like any other type of discreet surveillance we don't to give the actual location of them."
Young could not tell us when the Mayor's Office of Technology will finish connecting the rest of the city's cameras. Meanwhile, the New Orleans Inspector General is in the midst of his own investigation into the crime camera program, examining contracts and conducting an independent count of how cameras are truly operational.
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