Most LAPD downtown surveillance cameras inoperative

[n2doc]

By Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times
December 24, 2011
Most of the surveillance cameras installed in downtown Los Angeles as part of an effort to help police crack down on crime have not been working for two years, according to interviews and records reviewed by The Times.

The cameras were installed over the last few years in a highly publicized partnership between local business groups, which purchased them, and the Los Angeles Police Department, which was to monitor and maintain them.

But officials said the majority of the cameras don't work. Some broke down and were never fixed. In the case of six cameras purchased to watch over Little Tokyo, LAPD officials admit that they were never plugged in to the police station's monitoring bank.

Frustration about the broken cameras has deepened in recent days after a string of recent stabbings on a block in skid row. In one case, a 53-year-old man died after being stabbed and beaten by more than half a dozen attackers. No arrests have been made.

more

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-police-camera-20111224,0,6492627.story

...and the Republic will be saved by general incompetence, ineptitude and corruption!

[Downwinder]

1. They had sufficient resources to monitor OLA.

[jberryhill]

2. Newt suggested replacing them with children

The kids would be strapped to the poles and given cell phones to call police of they see anything.

[JDPriestly]

3. The LAPD seemed to be very busy flying a helicopter over

our neighborhood -- for hours this evening. Seriously, noise, noise, noise, noise for hours. We wonder why?

Once they flew a helicopter over for a very long time, and when my husband called, the officer told us that a car had been stolen.

We got less attention for a break-in at our home. And when my car was stolen, the police found it, but were extremely nonchalant about it.

The LAPD is really a pretty good organization, but their priorities are very strange. We could do worse, but we could do a lot of worse.

They waste so much money on those crazy helicopters. Think of the cost of keeping those things up for several hours.

[freshwest]

4. '...and the Republic will be saved by general incompetence, ineptitude and corruption!'

OMG, what a relief!

I thought everything was going to hell!

You just gave me a major happy!



I'll sleep a lot better now. On the floor, probably.

[Spazito]

5. I can't imagine the local business groups that purchased them...

in partnership with the LAPD, are too happy to find out they wasted their money on what amounts to useless decorations.

"The cameras were installed over the last few years in a highly publicized partnership between local business groups, which purchased them, and the Los Angeles Police Department, which was to monitor and maintain them in a highly publicized partnership between local business groups, which purchased them, and the Los Angeles Police Department, which was to monitor and maintain them."

[marasinghe]

6. on the other hand, we wouldn't want certain videos of the LAPD in action, would we?

'criminals might learn from having access to them'.

like - if the Rodney King episode was caught on surveillance video.