Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo laid out four options for cameras on the Downtown Mall and West Main corridor May 4, and asked City Council for guidance on which way to go. Councilors favored using already installed private cameras, with the city filling in the gaps.
The most expensive plan and least favored by councilors would put 36 cameras—four individually housed on a utility pole—on the mall for around $100,000 and $1,200 a month maintenance. Councilor Kathy Galvin said the image of a “four-pronged animal on the Downtown Mall would be quite jarring” and she would want the Board of Architectural Review to see if the cameras were consistent with the Lawrence Halprin-designed mall.
Longo favored slightly less-expensive option two, which would put four cameras in a single bubble for $73,682 and $1,200 a month, but said he could live with option three, which uses private cameras already installed with portable cameras that cost about $6,500 each filling in the gaps.
Councilor Kristin Szakos said she didn’t want to spend a huge portion of the public safety budget in an area “that’s basically pretty safe,” and preferred being able to move cameras to areas experiencing more crime. She also said she was concerned about the civil liberties considerations and didn’t want city cameras looking in people’s windows and backyards.
The camera footage won’t be monitored in real time and only will be used to help with investigations, as was the case when UVA second-year Hannah Graham disappeared last fall. Longo, who first approached City Council in 2007 about installing 30 cameras on the mall costing $300,000, said he’d come back with a firm price for buying a half dozen portable cameras.—C-VILLE writers