CURBING VIOLENCE
City Council passes resolutions on new police surveillance and body cameras
“Do I feel that city surveillance cameras are the panacea? Absolutely not. They’re a piece to the puzzle, much like we’re talking about tonight and manyof the projects that many of us are working on. They do provide the police clues, they provide evidence, whether it be somebody’s shoe, whether it be a license plate, you name it. So they are a piece of that puzzle and they also provide a sense of security to that particular neighborhood.”
— Troy City Council President Carmella Mantello
The Troy City Council passed multiple measures of legislation aimed at curbing violence in the Collar City. The renewed calls come following the tragic drive-by shooting homicide of 11-year-old Lansingburgh student Ayshawn Davis.
The council unanimously (70) passed a resolution that authorizes Mayor Patrick Madden to enter into an agreement with Eclipse Network Solutions for the purchase, installation, and maintenance of city surveillance cameras.
“I know a lot of work has gone into this. So many of us have been working on this for quite a while,” Troy City Council President Carmella Mantello remarked on the process of updating the technology of city cameras.
“When myself and a couple of council members found out, I believe council member [Kim] Ashe-McPherson had called me, but I was surprised because there was a stabbing over on 3rd Street by the Dunkin’ Donuts and we were apprised that the camera wasn’t working where the stabbing had taken place. And Nick Laviano is the PBA President and he was the one that said, ‘ jeez, these cameras sometimes work, sometimes don’t work, they work intermittently,’” Mantello continued.
“So myself and the council bipartisan last year we had gotten the chief [Brian Owens] at a couple of meetings, we had to appropriate monies, we worked with the mayor to do that. We were able to get a state grant. The RFP went out early this year and unfortunately, COVID delayed getting that RFP back,” Mantello added on finally acquiring the 120 or so cameras.
“Surveillance cameras are one of [the] many tools used by law enforcement to investigate crimes in our community. Earlier this year, my administration advanced a plan to upgrade to the city’s existing camera network in coordination with the Troy Police Department. Deployment of new camera technology will strengthen the reliability of our camera network, and I express my thanks to Assemblyman John McDonald for securing the state funding to move this important initiative forward,” Madden stated on the
addition of new cameras.
“Do I feel that city surveillance cameras are the panacea? Absolutely not. They’re a piece to the puzzle, much like we’re talking about tonight and many of the projects that many of us are working on,” Mantello said.
“They do provide the police clues, they provide evidence, whether it be somebody’s shoe, whether it be a license plate, you name it. So they are a piece of that puzzle and they also provide a sense of security to that particular neighborhood,” Mantello added regarding the cameras.
Troy Police Captain Steven Barker also spoke to the proposed deployment of the new cameras throughout the city.
“For Eclipse, what the design is going to be is to sit down with our current or our past vendor and whatever this new vendor may be and first to visit all of these intersections and do a site visit,” Barker commented.
“If we can refresh certain intersections, namely our busier intersections with new cameras like a multi- sensor camera and one unit to cover all of those angles instead of four separate cameras at an intersection,” Barker continued on the positioning of the cameras.
“Additionally, beginning to move out from that downtown core, because that’s where our best networking is, up to the north end or really also to south, because we never really made it very far south,” Barker added on their locations.
The City Council also unanimously passed (7- 0) a resolution on creating a sign/designation for “Ayshawn’s Place,” at a location to be determined within the city of Troy.
Ayshawn’s father, Terance Davis, remarked on the significance of having his son’s name displayed as a reminder to city residents.
“It’s very important to me that a part of Old Sixth be named after my son to remind people of the mistakes that’s going on in Troy and around the world,” Davis said.
“That a little kid outside playing, nothing should’ve happened to him. This kid was a very independent, worked very hard, was very bright. I want people to recognize there was a bright young kid that had a bright future,” Davis continued.
“Just to look at his name is to remind you of the mistakes, not to make again and to make the youth better for the little kids and even for the grownups to understand that we need to keep his name alive,” Davis added.
Additionally, the council unanimously (7- 0) passed a resolution which authorizes Madden to enter into a master services and purchasing agreement with Axon Enterprises, Inc., for the purpose of supplying and maintaining body-worn cameras and tasers for Troy police officers.
Public Safety Chair and Troy City Councilmember Eileen McDermott spoke to what the acquisition and implementation of the body cams means for added transparency.
“I feel this is just another level of transparency we’re adding to our police officers, who work every day to keep our city safe,” McDermott said, “And which will help build and continue to build trust within our community.
“I’m also pleased to move ahead with [the] purchase of equipment, training, and implementation a body-worn camera program for the Troy Police Department. The deployment of new technologies reinforces the department’s continued modernization as a 21st- century law enforcement agency. I look forward to working closely with department leadership to implement this program in the coming months.” Madden added on implementing the new police body cams.
Madden and Owens additionally reminded Troy families and property owners to register their private security cameras with the Troy Police Department’s “SafeCam” program as well.