Cameras to be installed in downtown garages

By Jewels Phraner

Published Jan. 25, 2008

Columbia is cracking down on downtown parking-garage crime.

The Columbia City Council unanimously approved a bill Wednesday to speed up the installation of additional security cameras in two downtown parking garages. Mayor Darwin Hindman and Second Ward Councilman Chris Janku were not at the meeting to cast their votes.

One additional camera each will be installed in the parking garage on Sixth and Cherry streets and in the parking garage on the corner of Seventh and Walnut streets.

Columbia Police Department Capt. Zim Schwartze said the cameras already in place have helped with investigation of crimes, such as larcenies and vandalism, committed in those garages.

"It's an excellent idea to get more cameras in those garages," Schwartze said. "Cameras help with trying to identify suspects and with trying to ensure safety."

The camera installations will cost about $64,000 and add about $25,000 to the yearly cost of maintaining the garages. The city plans to install the cameras this year, City Manager Bill Watkins said at the meeting.

"Due to recent security concerns and at the suggestion of Mayor Hindman, we think it's a good idea to accelerate the plan," Watkins said.

The cameras will not be monitored constantly, but the videos recorded by the cameras can be used to identify people, such as last summer when Columbia Police used footage to identify some suspects responsible for graffiti in the downtown parking structures, Schwartze said.

Hindman said the cameras also act as a deterrent and give Columbia's residents a sense of security.

"People should be able to park on the street and in the garages with a sense that it is as safe as possible," he said. "There should be cameras in all our garages."

In 2007, MU spent approximately $100,000 to install cameras at the entrances and exits of Virginia Avenue Garage. These cameras, like the ones to be installed downtown, are not monitored.

The cameras in Virginia Avenue Garage, and the ones installed in 2005 in Maryland Avenue Garage, have aided the police in a number of investigations, MU Police Capt. Brian Weimer said.

These cameras might also have acted a deterrent, Weimer said, but there's no way to measure crimes prevented.

An average of about 16 crimes are reported in each MU garage yearly, calculated from data from 2005 to 2007.

Most of those crimes involve vandalism or larceny and were not violent.

During the next fiscal year, MU will install cameras at Hitt Street Garage's entrances and exits as well, Parking and Transportation Director Jim Joy said.

After those are installed, MU Police will work with other safety groups on campus to take another look at the value of the cameras.

"Ultimately I defer to the police department," Joy said. "They tell me what to do to assist them."