Thread: Security cameras are fakes

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/busin...,3524278.story

Three years ago, MetroWest was hit with a crime wave.

In the sprawling west Orlando community, there were rapes, daytime armed robberies, assaults and a homicide — the shooting death of a young newlywed just outside his MetroWest apartment.

Residents, business owners and real-estate brokers all turned to the developer of the community's Veranda Park town center, Kevin Azzouz, asking that something be done.

Azzouz promised an aggressive security plan: about 40 or so "infrared" security cameras along the major thoroughfares to be monitored by security; a sophisticated three-dimensional crime-tracking program to monitor crime; and 16 off-duty police officers to beef up patrols day and night.

Now, residents have discovered:

•All of the security cameras that Azzouz had installed are fakes — empty boxes not connected to any monitoring system and without working parts.

•The crime-tracking computer program was Google Earth, an online maps program.

•The number of off-duty officers never reached more than six and has dwindled to just a couple. Starting Oct. 1, it will be just one officer.

The newly reconstituted MetroWest Masters Association board, which governs the 1,800-acre development with about 12,000 residents, is working to have real security cameras wired directly to Orlando police headquarters, according to new board president Jeremy Hollis.

"We believe that the mock cameras are a liability risk," Hollis said. "We have a security assessment under way, and we have $120,000 budgeted to purchase and install real cameras."

About a dozen of the 28 neighborhoods within MetroWest haveworking cameras and private security patrols, but they don't cover main roads and thoroughfares. The fake cameras were installed on utility poles without Orlando Utilities Commission's permission, spokesman Sheridan Becht said.

Orlando police Capt. John O'Grady said that in some settings, fake cameras can be appropriate, such as for decoys for hidden real cameras to catch shoplifters. But outdoor fake cameras can give people a false sense of security, he said.

"Someone might make a decision to go jogging or use an ATM at a certain location because they believe they are monitored by cameras, when that's not really the case," he said.

A spot-check on a half-dozen security cameras in the common areas of MetroWest found they had no apparent wires or electronics connected to them.

Some residents were stunned by the revelation.

T.J. Bates, who lives in a Veranda Park condo, said, "I can't believe it. What else is going to happen around here?"

Azzouz, who remains on the masters association's board, didn't respond to inquiries from the Sentinel. He is involved in numerous lawsuits, foreclosures and bankruptcies involving his half-built $700 million Veranda Park town center. A lawsuit by some residents alleges that he misspent more than $2.3million of association dues money.

The association is now working with Orlando police to get updated crime stats, Hollis said. O'Grady said the new cameras also will be connected to the department's IRIS Program — Innovative Response to Improve Safety.

Other new measures in MetroWest will be a part-time security manager who will work with Orlando police to assess potential crime problems and suggest solutions, Hollis said. And the association no longer uses a Google Earth map to track crime. Instead it will rely on a Police Department program.

Tomorrows headline "Crime skyrockets as criminals learn they aren't being watched".

but they didn't say of crime dropped in the areas where the fake cameras were placed.

True. But now that the cat is out of the bag. They have too spend more money to actually install working cameras.

It could be part of a clever ruse to fool the criminals into thinking all the cameras are fake and then the p olice can get more evidence against them.
But incompetence and mismanagement are a more likely cause.

Originally Posted by Red_Lizard2

its like putting up a fake brinks security sign by your house. You don't have their service but the bad guy doesn't know it. Won't stop everyone, but it will stop some of them.

Though i want to ask the one guy (or whoever) in that article, why the fuck do you "feel safer" jogging because their are cameras or using your ATM card?

By the time someone gets their to help you're already screwed anyways.

Bingo
Look at the UK

they have cameras everywhere but it doesn't stop violent crime.
It makes it easier to prosecute after the fact but that is not much help to the person who got attacked.

Metrowest sucks anyway. Burn it down and start over.