Sacramento Weighs Expanding Surveillance Cameras In City

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Sacramento city leaders will decide whether to place more surveillance cameras throughout the city.

Currently there are 32 surveillance cameras monitoring crime in Sacramento and police want to add 10 more for the Golden 1 Center alone.

A video wall at the Regional Transit Center on R Street covers almost every inch of the light-rail stations in the capital city. Trained dispatchers are looking for suspicious activity and passing it on to officers on the street.

But in the next several weeks, the dispatchers will move into a larger surveillance, real-time crime center on Richards Boulevard where they will combine forces with Sacramento Police.

The city already has 32 cameras and plans to add more. It's expected the ring of cameras will keep a close eye on the extra foot and vehicle traffic downtown.

"Be on the lookout for criminal activity or even direct officers to where they may be needed if there are traffic control issues," said Officer Matthew McPhail.

The American Civil Liberties Union has long opposed surveillance cameras in communities. Its policy states, "The ACLU does not oppose placing cameras at specific, high-profile public places that are potential terrorist targets, such as the U.S. Capitol. But the impulse to blanket our public spaces and streets with video surveillance is a bad idea."

Police say not to worry.

"They're only recording in public places," McPhail said. "When we deploy these devices, they're not pointing into people's houses or other places people would expect their privacy would be protected."

The facility is expected to cost more than $429,000. Police hope to have the new cameras up around the Golden 1 Center by October.