Illegal Activity Caught On Camera in Colorado

The Police Department in Trinidad, Colorado is putting city security cameras to good use. Recently, they caught four young people on video, participating in illegal behavior at the city skate park. Last week, the kids were caught smoking marijuana in the park on Sunday night. The incident was caught by a dispatcher who just happened to be monitoring the camera. An officer was sent to the scene and citations were issued.

Trinidad Police Chief Charles Glorioso had high praise for the surveillance technology. He told the Trinidad Times, "That’s the whole reason we put (the camera) there, trying to keep the park clean and safe. But, apparently the kids - maybe they don’t believe the technology is as good as it is. We can really zoom in and see faces and identify people with them.”

Not only is the park's camera in plain sight, but it has a sign underneath it which lets people know the park is under surveillance. Even so, the drug-related incident was just the most recent in a line of issues that have plagued the city and were caught on camera. In may, a young person was caught on camera vandalizing the park with graffiti and was charged a fine, given six months of probation, and made to serve 48 hours of community service. In June, 23-, 18-, 17-, and 14- year olds were caught in 36 various graffiti incidents. The vandals will be assisting the city's Graffiti Removal Task Force with cleaning up the town's vandalized property.

Glorioso said people should be more aware of the cameras, which are often monitored by dispatchers, "That whole park is monitored, and I want to let them know what dispatch has the capability of accessing that camera and zooming in...a lot of dispatchers use the cameras on their downtime. It’s like having extra officers out there patrolling."

Cameras are located at the intersection of Main Street and Nevada Avenue, Cimino Park, Miners Memorial Park, and Central Park are also minored by the Trinidad Police Department, in addition to the one at the skate park.

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Arkansas High School Improves Security with Cameras

Schools are some of the most common places for security cameras. Keeping our children safe is more important than anything else in the world. And one school in Corning, Arkansas has learned that lesson well.

In November, Corning High School found three different bomb threats written on a boy's bathroom wall...all in one week. Unfortunately, no one has been charged but law enforcement is still investigating. Fortunately, a week before the bomb threats, cameras were installed in the schools and according School Resource Officer Dwight Brown, have been a helping with the investigation and with other problems.

"Cameras are really a big help," he told a local news station. "You can definitely see a big difference. Last year when we didn't have them you had a lot of people roaming the halls."

Even students agree the school is safer with the added cameras. "They find stuff that some people can't find as if there was a discipline problem and nobody saw it they could find it on the cameras," one eighth grader said.

And a senior in the school said, "We've had vandalism problems in the past and since they show the outside we can really use them."

One teacher said he's noticed less graffiti in the bathrooms and outside the school. Students don't know where all the cameras are located, but for the most part, most of them say they aren't worried about it because they aren't doing anything wrong. One school official says the cameras have helped with "he said, she said" incidents because teachers and administrators now have that information on video.

The cameras aren't just on the high school campus. Two elementary schools have cameras as well. And all of the buses in the district have added cameras too, which has helped take the pressure off of drivers, so they can spend more time driving kids to and from school and less time worrying about who is doing what.

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Looking for a DVR or NVR Security Camera System? If so call today at 877-422-1907 x226 for a free phone consultation.