Three companies who pitched their versions of a camera surveillance system for Selma agreed that such a system will deter crime.
Alabama Power Co., local communication company SELCOM and Louisiana-based Active Solutions gave hour-long presentations to the Selma City Council and area law enforcement officials last week. APC and SELCOM have been head-to-head in the competition to install citywide surveillance cameras for more than a year. Active Solutions was new to the competition.
All three companies offer similar technology and services, and all three companies said that a surveillance system will help law enforcement solve crimes. The presence of cameras has been shown to deter crime, at least at the locations covered by the cameras, they said.
The three vendors proposed different camera layouts, and the number of cameras varied from 80 cameras for APC to half that for SELCOM. All three companies said the city could place the cameras wherever they want and could add cameras and features for more money.
The surveillance systems offer cameras that watch and record in low light or in some cases no light using infrared. Images can be viewed at a central monitoring station, on electronic devices. Images can be stored on a computer server, in “the cloud” (a private data storage company) and on a data card in each camera. In APC’s proposal, the city would lease the equipment, while the city would purchase the equipment from the other two companies. In all three, the data collected by the system is owned by the city, not the vendor.
Officers can find video images quickly by typing in the color of a suspect’s clothing or other identifying information. The computer can show images of vehicles based on make, model, type or color.
The systems also include a specialized camera that zooms in and records photos of license plates as vehicles pass by. This can help police track a vehicle they are looking for in real time, or they can go through images after the fact to see if a suspect vehicle was near the scene of a crime. Tag data collected by the local system can be compared to information about suspect vehicles and stolen vehicles that police enter into a statewide database every day.
For an extra fee, the city could add microphones at strategic areas that could identify the location of gunfire.
APC has placed 3,000 cameras in 73 cities, 15 housing authorities and 38 homeowners’ associations. SELCOM is used in several places, including neighboring Lowndes County. Active Solutions’ customers include New Orleans, Jefferson Parrish and Jackson, Miss.
Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr. has backed the APC system from the beginning. Half the City Council voted to go with the APC system in March, but it wasn’t enough votes to close the deal. The camera system was put out for bid again. The three finalists – APC, SELCOM and Advance Solutions – were given the opportunity to do formal presentations to the council and to area law enforcement officials on Sept. 20.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.