It was almost TEN years ago when Barrie Tilghman and Chief Webster filed for a grant to pay for security cameras, (14 of them). The grant demanded that these cameras go into high crime areas where GUNS were being used.
WBOC emphasized on the camera on the corner of Main Street and Division Street and mentioned three others. However, to IMPLY we are anywhere as secure as Boston or NYC is just plain crazy. Heck, they even mentioned that most of the cameras aren't even operational. Nevertheless, Downtown Salisbury actually has the LEAST amount of crime than all of the rest of the City.
Think about it. Have you ever sen a crime on Main Street and Division Street? Have you ever seen a gun crime there? So why did the SPD install a camera there? More proof that no one polices the police.
Now I ask you, is there an operational camera on Smith Street or ANY other gun crime area in the City? Did you know there are more operational cameras feeding into the SPD from private businesses than there are from the 14 cameras the taxpayers paid for. If you saw that piece yesterday, the majority of images you saw from the SPD monitor were images from private businesses and not from City owned cameras.
My point is two fold. One, your tax dollars were spent years ago to better secure your safety from the high volume of gun crime in Salisbury and it was never delivered nor was/is anyone held accountable. If you or I were contracted 10 years ago to install 14 cameras to secure citizens and it wasn't up and running 10 years later, well, you get the point. I wonder why WBOC didn't challenge that?
Secondly, when you attempt to report a story and imply something we are not and give citizens false hope, I also believe WBOC should be held accountable. Hence this article.
If there's one thing I learned from my campaign it was the actual pressure I received from certain special interest groups demanding I no longer write any articles similar to this one because it, (in their opinion) hurts the City's reputation. Hence the more fluff and uninformed piece produced by WBOC yesterday. There was no truth to that piece. Just manufactured news that pleases the special interests.
The citizens of Salisbury deserve the TRUTH. It is not my intent to hurt Salisbury. My intent is to hold elected officials accountable, as they should be. You want my/our tax dollars and spend it on security, then deliver the security and give us what we paid for and don't take 10 years to deliver it.
Why would you put this information out there? You are just asking for crime to happen. What is wrong with you?
ReplyDeletePut the cameras on the WEST side of town that's where the crime is ,And i don't care if my comment is not PC.
ReplyDeleteJoe, everybody knows (On the Tilghman Team, anyway) that there's no crime downtown because the cameras are preventing it! Hey, no cams on Barclay skreet now, and look! And, Maryland & Smith has a sale going on there every day. Why? No cams!
ReplyDeleteLOL!
Do the cameras even work? I think that many of them may not.
ReplyDeletetruth - what a concept. thanks
ReplyDeleteI have visited London several times. There are CCTV cameras everywhere and it made us feel more secure. Too bad that Salisbury can't "do it the right way."
ReplyDelete" You are just asking for crime to happen. What is wrong with you?"
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with YOU? Do you seriously think the criminals give one hoot whether there is a camera or not? No camera ever has prevented a crime. All they do is make the police work slightly easier. That's it. The mugger isn't thinking about the camera over his shoulder. He's thinking about stealing your money. Period.
This is what you do best, Joe. Thank you, and please keep it up!
ReplyDeleteI thought that Tilghman and Webster located the cameras where they did to watch you- and yes, I'm serious
So the drug market dont get the cameras??kinda sounds like some money kickbacks too someone??..since the jist of cameras was to reduce crime??..how come the cameras are not pointed where they should be??? So WBOC n DT !! you have mobile cameras!! how come yours are never shoved in the politicians faces any more??is this also because of money??we on the outside looking in ..it appears you are all on the take.nothing changes and you will ask for more again when another program fails to stop crime...sounds like a great racket..
ReplyDeleteIf you think that cameras make you more safe, you're fooling yourself!
ReplyDeleteThink about it this way...
In Israel, on every corner there's somebody with an automatic weapon.
In the US, there isn't anywhere close to that level of security.
Why is it? Because in Israel, they *need* armed people everywhere. You don't need them in the US because we're safer from suicide bombers.
Simple economics dictate why this is. The measures are taken where the benefits outweigh the costs.
So if you see cameras everywhere, there are one of two scenarios at play.
1. The crime is so bad, that they *need* cameras to help apprehend perps. I can't recall a public camera being used in an investigation to catch anybody here in Salisbury. So this might not be a likely reason for the cameras, right?
2. The people who control the cameras want to know everything that everybody is doing at all times. Isn't there a camera out in front of Joe's building? Didn't Webster like to drive by when Joe was in front? This seems like a more likely use than reason #1.
Neither one of these reasons is very reassuring. Either there's a lack of police, or the existence of a police state.
Do cameras make you feel safer now?
Ha Ha Ha!!
ReplyDeleteThe one by the festival was full of water!
Get ready,more taxes are coming because the police is going to be touting the greatness of more cameras and how they will make us safer and offer so much protection....you can hear the speeches preping up now for the council.
ReplyDeleteSo there are a few companies in Salisbury that are provided with free security via the SPD? I wonder if I install cameras around my house if the WCSO will watch them for me for free.
ReplyDeleteThe drug market areas don't get camera's, because the cops don't want to be filmed taking the brib money from the dealers.
ReplyDeleteanonymous 12:10, you are exactly right. WMDT has their cameras directly fed into the SPD and they monitor the safety of their business at the expense of the taxpayer, yet Mayor Ireton wants a Lockout Ordinance because too many businesses are ABUSING police resources.
ReplyDeleteWAKE UP PEOPLE! IT WAS YOUR ELECTION TO LOSE.
As long as 3 yrs ago our neighborhood assoc. was told due to high crime in our area and the crimes we were experiencing in Salisbury we needed to have these security cameras installed in the back alleys, we were told our cost would be $200-$300. We installed our own for less than $100, when we asked about the price being so high we were told they would have to be "bullet proof". Our crime is dramatically down thanks to the Mayor and the SPD.
ReplyDeletejust another way to invade your privacy
ReplyDeleteI feel really safe knowing there is a camera at Main and Division Streets where so much crime occurs. You got to be kidding.
ReplyDeleteWere they working today with the bomb scare?
ReplyDelete@1:45pm your quoted price was extremely fair. I'm sure what you put in yourself is a camera none of us fear. When someone does something and the pictures make it to the LE's they'll laugh and have trouble even figuring out the persons skin color. Let alone facial features. Good high quality cameras, with proper enhancement features cost money. Far more than your quoted cost.
ReplyDeleteWBOC must have gotten us confused with dover. I mean heck they don't report anything but out of Delaware any way
ReplyDeleteI think the cameras were put downtown around the time that a graffiti artist was tagging all the buildings
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWhy would you put this information out there? You are just asking for crime to happen. What is wrong with you?
April 30, 2013 at 9:49 AM
Yeah, I'm sure everyone will rush to these streets and do their thing now.
Missing the greater picture. If the City put all the cameras in the high crime ares - that would be racial profiling. the city is forced to put cameras in the non crime areas to offset the alleged profiling issue. The left is so concerned with how one feels they would sacrifice true safety concerns for political correctness.
ReplyDeleteThank you, 928, for stating true fact!
ReplyDeleteJoe:
ReplyDeletePlease name the "special interest groups demanding I no longer write any articles similar to this one because it, (in their opinion) hurts the City's reputation."
Or let me guess: the Chamber of Commerce and Greater Salisbury Committee or members thereof.
They still run Smallsbury - into the ground -- like they have done for years. at the expense of those who actually live there, aided and abetted by the Daily Times.