Ridgeland criminals beware: You’re being watched

Money seized from drug dealers and other criminals in Ridgeland has been put to work to help keep the town safer.

Forfeited assets were used to pay for a new $80,000 network of security cameras in the downtown area.

That 15-camera system went live last week.

The launch of the camera network “is exciting,” town administrator Dennis Averkin said Friday. “This an important tool in our our tool box for us to use to help with public safety.”

In the case of a crime or even just a car accident, the cameras could “provide a real eyewitness account when there aren’t any (human witnesses) around,” he said.

The cameras are mounted as high as 20 feet off the ground and placed at locations determined to be both strategically important and logistically do-able.

“We wanted the cameras spread around (roadways) that can capture (footage of) people coming in and out of town, but we also needed (locations) where we already had infrastructure that we could mount a camera on,” Averkin said.

Many of the cameras are centered around intersections along Main Street, Logan Street, and U.S. 21.

The cameras were provided by North Carolina-based J&M Security Solutions.

Company owner Jason Nagy said the five megapixel lenses “record very high resolution video in a 360-degree range” and can pan and zoom so “you never miss any action.”

Footage from the cameras is “fed back to the town’s police department in real time so they can view it in the office, in their vehicles, and on their phones,” he said.

The system allows footage to be stored and reviewed for up to 14 days.

Last summer, the Bluffton Police Department unveiled a network of 21 new security cameras installed on 10-foot poles around May River Road and Calhoun Street to help police monitor public spaces in the Old Town historic district.

Since then, 14 more cameras have been added to the system, department spokeswoman Joy Nelson said Friday.

“They have proven to be really successful” in gathering evidence and monitoring festivals and events, she said. “We have more eyes on the streets, and that helps tremendously.”

This story was originally published September 16, 2016 at 1:13 PM with the headline "Ridgeland criminals beware: You’re being watched."