SkyCop – Memphis Flyer

Preserve Cooper-Young/Facebook

SkyCop cameras could soon watch the streets of Cooper-Young and not everyone is happy about that.

A Tuesday-morning statement from the Cooper-Young Business Association (CYBA) said the board bought seven cameras from SCIT Technologies, Inc. last month. Two of those cameras will read license plates. If installed, all video and license plate information captured would go directly to the Memphis Police Department’s (MPD) Real Time Crime Center (RTCC).

The statement, from CYBA executive director Tamara Walker, said “this action is a direct result of the active and ongoing violent assaults that have been taking place in our business district over the last several months.”

In May, several men were robbed and beaten in the Young Avenue Deli parking lot, according to WREG. Two men left the bar and were heading to their car “when three vehicles pulled up. Men wearing bandannas and masks jumped out,” according to WREG, and one of the attacked men said the attackers had pistols and assault rifles. The men attacked and robbed another man before fleeing in their cars.

WREG

Last month, police told WREG that a man kidnapped and robbed a woman and then robbed an Uber Eats driver.

“We believe that these cameras, in addition, to the armed security patrol that businesses are hiring, new lighting that is being installed, fencing around property, regular clean up and maintenance, as well as individual business surveillance will bring an immediate impact on this violent activity happening in the business areas in our district,” Walker said in a statement.

However, some Cooper-Young residents say the SkyCop camera project was done without any feedback from the community and are urging residents to contact the CYBA and Memphis City Council member Jamita Swearengen to comment.

“If these blue blinking lights are able to deter crime along the business corridor, where do you think crime will spread if those arteries are watched?” asked Patrick Durkin, a Cooper-Young resident and adminstrator of the Preserve Cooper-Young Facebook page. “Is it out of the question that a would-be criminal may slink into the neighborhood and target residential streets because those in front of the businesses are being surveilled? Is 24/7 government-recorded surveillance that may force criminals onto our residential streets the answer to summertime crime upticks?”

WREG

The CYBA said the cameras will be placed at ”highly-utilized intersections on Cooper Street, Young Avenue and Central Avenue.” Durkin said he was told the cameras would be placed close to East Parkway and Young, Blythe and Young, Cooper and Young, Walker and Cooper, Evelyn and Cooper, Central and Cooper, and Central and Cox.

The CYBA said “these cameras will be pointed at the street. The video will only be used by detectives at Memphis Police Department to solve crimes. The CYBA will not have access to this video. Video will have a 30-day, continuous record.” Walker said she expected the cameras to be up in 30 days.

“How does this look to visitors to our neighborhood?” Durkin asked on Facebook. “Do you feel more comfortable living your best life under MPD’s microscope or is it a signal that you have now entered a crime-ridden neighborhood where at any moment you may become a victim?”

Before the cameras can be installed, the funds from the CYBA to the MPD for them must be approved by the city council. The council is slated to meet again on Tuesday, July 16th.

“If you have comments regarding this, please contact the CYBA at cyba@bellsouth.net or (Cooper-Young’s) councilwoman Jamita Swearengen, Jamita.Swearengen@memphistn.gov,” Durkin wrote. ”Cooper-Young: historically hip and now and forever blinking blue.”

In East Memphis’ Belle Meade subdivision, neighborhood security camera footage recently led to an arrest of a person stealing a trailer with a four-wheeler on the back. But unlike a typical private security camera, this one fed directly into the Memphis Police Department’s (MPD) Real Time Crime Center (RTCC).

Back in February, Belle Meade became the first neighborhood to fund-raise and purchase their own “SkyCop”-style cameras, which were installed throughout the area bordered by Walnut Grove, Poplar, Goodlett, and East Cherry.

The MPD has been placing surveillance cameras in high-crime or highly trafficked areas for years, and they have several mobile cameras that are placed around town during special events. But the Memphis City Council cleared the way earlier this year for any neighborhood to get a camera hooked up with the RTCC.

“This process is for people who are interested in having their cameras tie into the RTCC,” said Councilman Philip Spinosa, who sponsored the resolution to allow neighborhoods to purchase their own police cameras.

While any neighborhood can install cameras that don’t feed into the RTCC, Memphis Police Sergeant Joe Patty said the police-approved surveillance cameras make it easier for police to access video when something happens. The cameras also become property of the MPD, so maintenance falls to them, not the neighborhood.

“You have our patented SkyCop enclosure with the blue light on it, so it’s easy to recognize as a police camera. It belongs to the police, so it becomes our problem,” Patty said. “And if something were to happen, we could instantly access it and pull the video. In the other scenario [where neighborhoods use private cameras], we have to send somebody from our video team to go out and pull that video. Unless it’s a homicide or a really critical incident, that’s usually the next couple days after it happens.”

Here’s how it works: Once a neighborhood group decides it wants police cameras, someone from the group will contact the MPD’s RTCC at MPDNeighborhoodCameras@memphistn.gov, and they’ll send back a list of approved vendors. The group gets quotes from those vendors and either fund-raises from within or applies for grants to cover the cost of the camera and installation. The group then donates that cost to the Memphis and Shelby County Law Enforcement Foundation, which will purchase the cameras and have them installed.

“It becomes property of MPD, and we add it into our grid,” Patty said. “It’s basically an MPD camera, but it’s purchased by private funds.”

When the council cleared the way for this process earlier this year, some council members had concerns that citizens in neighborhoods that might need cameras the most wouldn’t be able to afford to purchase them. So they also approved a new Neighborhood Sentinel Program that allots $400,000 in the city budget for 70 neighborhood cameras to be installed in crime hotspots determined by MPD data.

“Neighborhoods should have access to cameras regardless of financial means,” Spinosa said. “This is a first step in adding security to neighborhoods. I would love it if, after we do these 70, we could do another resolution for another 70.”