By Jim Melican, GSAC Board Member
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Last March the GSAC board of directors determined to make a $52,800 cash donation to the City of Naples, in return for which the City would erect state of the art security cameras monitoring the ingress and egress to our area across the Harbour Drive and Park Shore bridges. Other neighborhoods in the City, including Port Royal and Royal Harbor, had previously made similar arrangements with the City, which purchases, installs and maintains the cameras as part of their extensive City-wide security camera program that is monitored centrally by the Naples Police Department. The City Council approved the donation in mid-May.
The equipment has now been installed. The sensors in the cameras cover a 360-degree scope and there are separate license plate readers which can zoom in on and record license plate numbers. The video is retained by the Police Department for 30 days and the license plate information for 90 days. The information obtained from the cameras and the license plate readers is available only to the Police Department.
In recent years most of the organized thefts in our immediate area have involved bicycles, which the thieves load into the back of pickup trucks. The cameras have the capability of focusing on the truck beds and capturing the license plate number. In addition, if a license plate number has previously been identified as suspicious and that number reappears, the police department’s patrol units are instantly and automatically alerted.
While fortunately, crime has not been a significant issue in our community, this enhanced security measure will hopefully prove reassuring to our residents.
