Looks like San Francisco's crime-fighting security cameras will stay up for at least another year, despite the Board of Supervisors' recent moves to pull the plug.
The cameras' effectiveness came into question this year because the police don't watch them - partly because they don't have the staff and partly because neither the mayor nor the supervisors want to appear to be playing Big Brother. Instead, the cops wait for a crime to happen, then have to go back to look at the tape - which sometimes shows something and more often doesn't.
So when Mayor Gavin Newsom included $200,000 in fresh money next year for continued operation of the 76 cameras, the supes' finance committee said no.
The mayor reacted furiously, telling us last week that if the cameras don't make any difference in safety, then the city should take them all down - including those being used for security at City Hall.
For all the mayor's bluster, however, it turns out his office has $200,000 sitting in a reserve fund that was supposed to go toward buying new cameras. Now, everyone may be fine with using that money instead on upkeep for the old ones.
"We should maintain the cameras that exist," said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who supported the cameras at first in his Western Addition district but has since become a skeptic.
So it looks like the cameras will stay, even if nobody likes the way they work - or don't work.
Source:
Story written by Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross writing in their weekly column, Matier and Ross, published in the San Francisco Chronicle. Read the original story here. Also check out the Matier & Ross web page at sfgate.com/matierandross
Resources:
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Office of the Mayor of San Francisco
Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi
Phil Matier on KCBS
Andrew Ross and Phil Matier in Barack Obama Community Blog
San Francisco Police Department
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