Davenport Council: Skybridge will not get cameras, for now -QCTimes last weekWhy not?
I don't see why this is even a debate. The debate should be why they weren't included in the original plan. We built a beautiful glass structure, open to the public 24/7.... whatever could go wrong with that? Most public places have security cameras to make the police department's job easier when something happens. I believe the RiverCenter has cameras, and probably the new library too. You can't sneeze in Chicago without it being recorded, although I believe that city provides a good example of cameras going too far. Practically every retail store has cameras, and almost none of them are monitored around the clock.
I mention this because apparently the problem with cameras is they won't be monitored 24/7. Does this mean that Keith and the others would have approved of it if we paid someone $6 an hour times 8760 hours a year (more than $50,000) to monitor them? I like his volunteer idea, and there's no reason not to implement that as well, but I doubt we'll ever get 24/7's worth of volunteers. A better idea would be an actual Skybridge patrol, much like the VIPs occasionally do. Just the presence of witnesses would prevent a lot of stuff from happening.
In the mean time cameras can serve as our witnesses, and allow more of the vandals to be caught and prosecuted. Hopefully the council reconsiders and installs the cameras. It seems like common sense, but as we all know... that's no indicator of what this council will do.
11 comments:
Heck, you don't even have to install a real camera. Doesn't anybody remember when they installed camera boxes on all the Davenport school buses (but only bought two or three actual cameras to put in the boxes) in the early 90s? Just put in a fake camera with a little blinking light, announce that you've installed a camera, and vandalism will go down.
Of course cameras are so cheap nowadays that a camera with a recorder that simply loops every week or so would require almost no City employee time and would serve QCI's witness function.
And if they really wanted real-time monitoring, I wonder if a company like NICE could create a "vandalism detection" system to go with their other automated video analytics:
http://nice.com/products/video/analytics.php
Meyer, Hamerlink, Ambrose, etc don't what the cameras because then if it solved the problem, they couldn't complain about the sky bridge anymore!!
kind of a cool picture though...
we could just go with the broken look
Cameras in the sky bridge seem to be a no brainer. They deter because the kids know they are there. I am frustrated this didn't pass.
Cris
This was tabled for a number of reasons including one ( on your usual side) Alderman's request to close the place down at about 11p.m. and issue bar code scan cards to Isle of Capri employees. Another ( your number one Alderman), wanted to slice in half the number of cameras.Sometimes you just have to get the big picture to get with it.
Keith
The city has a few employees that are on light duty do to injuries on the job. These are the folks that should be watching the sky bridge instead of picking up cigarette buts at the transit center.
The thing is a white elephant.
The king of Thailand has given us this elephant and not the cost of maintaining it is eating us up.
QCI--
Excellent picture. Very artistic. AND...I saw it used in a presentation today by Dan Carmody at the NCRC conference. Good work!
This is slightly off-topic, but every out-of-town visitor that I've met has given nothing but praise to our skybridge. Though it is a quirky structure, it is a unique public space that offers a fantastic perspective of the urbanized Mississippi River Valley that few people have ever witnessed. And the music ain't bad either. I've shown this public space to people from Russia, Jerusalem, Ireland, and folks from Chicago, New York and San Francisco.
Their reactions? Unanimously "Fantastic". Nothing but 'oohs' and 'ahhs'.
For many, it contributes to a memorable skyline that holds its own against the other great cities of the world.
Darrin:
They were just being nice, and you need to get out of Davenport and see a few other cities.
Actually if you surf around the internet, including the AbsoluteDSM forums, you will find many people from outside the QC who like the Skybridge. In fact, most people I know from IN the QC like the Skybridge. Just look how many photosets on Flickr there are.
As usual, the complainers are just louder.
The complainers are the ones that had to pay for it!
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