RochesterConservative.com

Rev. Dr. Tommy Davis
Republican Review of America

The city’s adoption of surveillance cameras and shot spotters are good tools in fighting transgressions. Crimes committed by firearms in the Rochester community seems to be the choice among criminals who attempt to leave as little evidence as possible after committing an offense.

Our cameras are totally compatible with shot spotter systems and will prove wholly efficient in combating misdeeds and solving cases involving the use and discharge of a weapon.

Our shot spotter should be linked to all remote cameras which will direct observation to the area where a shot is fired. Such control will allow police to identify witnesses at or leaving the incident as well as recognize vehicles near the crime scene. When witnesses are located and shown themselves at the landscape of a crime, such ones will more likely reveal the truth to investigators.

Photos can be snapped and shown to patrol who may encounter suspicious automobiles that may have been implicated in crimes. This kind of technology is significant if we are to reduce the number of fatalities from guns, as well as increase the cooperation among citizens. A clear message will be sent that those who commit such crimes will be identified and separated from society using solid evidence.

When images are captured of persons of interest, it can be televised by newscast. Then it is up to citizens to name the possible suspect or recognize elements within the image that may lead to arrests.

The primary responsibility of police is to maintain order by enforcing the law. It is the private citizenry —including clergy— who must stress the economic and moral equivalent in their neighborhoods. Granted, poverty and lack of intellectual capital are major contributors to crime but becoming criminal is a choice rather than a default position due to destitution and limited education.

When a person determines to deprive someone of life, property, or limb to gain an economic advantage, they have put a criminal act above the possible consequences. In evading the law they attempt to elude those penalties.

When innovations are embraced that will apprehend those who perpetrate misconduct, it can discourage others from making similar decisions.

In her article printed in City Journal, entitled “The NYPD Diaspora” , Heather MacDonald pinpoints the success and effectiveness of former New York City cops who now head police departments in other cities. She highlighted Jose Cordero, a former NYPD commander who imported smart management and technology in his position as director of the East Orange, New Jersey police department. “Gunshot-detection sensors”, she says, “at various locations alert headquarters immediately when a gun gets discharged outdoors. Cameras then take pictures around the source of the shot, with emphasis on roads and nearby arteries leaving the city….”

In his third year of hire from 2004 to 2007, homicides had dropped 67 percent under Cordero’s watch which included the use of directed patrols.

Even if a shot is fired from a location where cameras are not located, investigators can still piece together information by examining activity nearby. Cameras will nonetheless direct to an area where the shots are fired even if it cannot pick up visually from a distance. Cameras will trace as witnesses or suspects leave the location and walk within view.

Cooperative citizens, smart technology, and guided patrols are guaranteed solutions that will make any sized city more safe. Let’s connect this machinery and follow East Orange, New Jersey’s lead in combating crime through the use of smart policing and clever equipment.

Rev. Dr. Tommy Davis of Rochester is a certified crisis responder and chief chaplain for the NYS Jurisdiction of Chaplain Fellowship Ministries International, an organization headquartered in Texas of over 600 independent chaplains who works with police, fire, hospital, military, schools, jails and prisons. He worships at Victory Baptist Church in Henrietta. He can be reached at chaplaintomdavis@yahoo.com.

Certified Crisis Response Chaplain
www.homeland-crisis.org