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Jul 13, 2023

Carson advances security camera projects

Carson is moving forward with its two citywide camera projects. As part of a resolution approved in March, 402 closed-circuit television cameras will be installed at the interior and exterior of all

Carson is moving forward with its two citywide camera projects.

As part of a resolution approved in March, 402 closed-circuit television cameras will be installed at the interior and exterior of all city parks and facilities. According to Carson’s Public Safety Services Manager Ken McKay, members of city staff have almost completed installing cameras at Mills Park. Carson Community Center is slated to be the next facility to be equipped with the new cameras. Later, staff will move on to install cameras at other parks.

“It’s a big, robust program that I’m really excited (about),” said McKay during an update of the projects at the Tuesday, August 1 city council meeting. “It was a long endeavor to undertake, but it’s a good project, it’s going to serve the city well.”

City Hall, the Juanita Millender McDonald Community Center, Veterans Park, Carson Park and Mills Park were previously the only facilities equipped with video surveillance systems.

City Hall is the only site that has an access-control system installed. These existing cameras are so outdated, however, that they can no longer be repaired or maintained, officials said.

Through the project, cameras will be installed at every city park, as well as City Hall, the community center and the corporate yard. The new system provides the city with better and more consistent security, city officials said.

“The best part of this, in my opinion, is our storage capacity,” McKay said. “We went from recording up to 25 days, and then having to record over it, to go up to about 90 days.”

The second camera project consists of 73 license-plate readers to be placed at strategic intersections and locations throughout the city.

These cameras will automatically snap photos of the license plates of all passing vehicles. The plate number will then be run through the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s vehicle database and the police will be alert once a criminal activity is pinged. In addition, it captures the data of any cars whose owner may commit an illegal activity in the future, McKay said.

“So I like that part, because if you go through today, it may not ping you, but you do something tomorrow, and we catch your car, we are going to ping you later and we are going to come after you later,” he said.

The license-plate readers haven’t been installed yet as the city is still waiting for the arrival of all hardware from the vendor, which “could be any day now”, McKay added.

The total cost for the citywide license-plate reader program is $815,215.24 for a five-year contract, according to city staff. The project placing cameras at parks and facilities, on the other hand, is estimated at $5.1 million.

According to data from Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, total violent crimes in Carson dropped from 274 cases from the first half of 2022 to 245 cases in the same period in 2023. Violent crimes includes homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Property crimes, which comprises burglary, larceny theft, grand theft auto and arson, also experienced a slight decline. It went from 1,709 during the first half of 2022 to 1,675 in the same period in 2023.

The latest high-profile shooting occurred in the city in June, when eight people between ages 16-24 were wounded after a fight broke out at a house party.

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