Security Cameras Approved for Newtown

In a continued effort to combat crime in Newtown, city commissioners unanimously approved five surveillance cameras to be installed along the Dr. Marin Luther King Jr. Way Corridor.

City staff had originally requested four cameras totaling $100,000, but a fifth was added after commissioner Willie Shaw said the project was incomplete.

“We need it all in place,” Shaw said. “Let’s do it one time and get the job done right the first time.”

The camera project, which now has a $125,000 tab, will be paid for using tax increment financing funds.

Cameras would be installed at four intersections along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way: at Pershing Avenue, Dixie Avenue, Links Avenue and Church Avenue.

The location of the fifth camera that was approved Monday does not have a definite intersection. Shaw suggested Leon Avenue.

Lt. Randy Boyd of the Sarasota Police Department said the existing cameras in Fredd Atkins Park and Sarasota Housing Authority developments have helped deter crime. “I can tell you that these cameras are making a difference,” he told the commission.

“So if it’s a premeditated [crime], they are not doing that anymore because they know they are on camera 24 hours a day,” said Bill Russell, executive director of the Sarasota Housing Authority.

The types of cameras approved on Monday are installed at other various locations in Sarasota: Myrtle and U.S. 41, Five Points Park, the new police headquarters and the skate park.

City staff said the “theater quality” cameras currently in place have held up well. “So far they have been perfect,” Boyd said.

Crime data from Jan. 1 to Oct. 31 shows that in areas that the surveillance cameras would cover, there have been:

• 89 Assaults
• 53 Burglaries
• 123 Drug/Alcohol Violations
• 9 Motor Vehicle Thefts
• 2 Robberies
• 1 Sex Crime
• 49 Theft/Larceny