FLORENCE, Ala. (WHNT) — New cameras will be added in multiple locations along Court Street in downtown Florence.
“We’re gonna add approximately five cameras to cover more of Court Street and of the busiest intersections,” City of Florence Network Administrator Raegan Boyles said.
Officials hope it will help law enforcement.
Back in March, a man died following a bar fight outside of ‘On the Rocks’ in the downtown area, with none of it being caught on surveillance cameras.
Then, more recently, Autumn Strickland was abducted from the downtown area. She was only seen in an area with a working camera for a moment. The Florence Police Department told News 19 they have no other video of her in the downtown area.
“It’ll help with deterring crime, it’ll help us if something does happen that we can look at those cameras and try and investigate whatever incident that occurred,” says Joshua Meza, FPD’s Public Information Officer.
News 19 spoke with some of the businesses near where these cameras will be going in, and they say they are grateful to have more security.
“I personally believe that having these cameras here in downtown are going to be very beneficial for everyone, I feel like downtown has gotten a little rowdy,” says Caleb Stanfield, an employee at Billy Reid, a clothing store on Court Street.
Thomas Regen, manager of On the Rocks bar, said that it’s about time there is exterior video.
“I think it’s great from a business standpoint because we have cameras, but they don’t necessarily cover the sidewalk, so we only know what happens inside,” Regen said.
Currently, there are a few cameras in downtown right now but the city says they are not reliable.
“There seems to be some older infrastructure cameras that are up, and they’ve kind of outlived their usefulness, and so these are much better cameras and they’ll record more data so we can go further back…” Boyles said.
The price tag on the cameras, as well as the price for installation, comes to a total of over $30,000. The cameras are expected to be installed in July.
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