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Just an update...my friend just called and he said he spoke to a coworker who lives at an apartment complex a few blocks away, closer to Uptown and 15 cars were broken into on the same night. It was probably the same guys. That is so ridiculous. 15 in addition to the two in our neighborhood. Who knows how many more cars these guys hit in the same night or over the weekend. It's sickening.
Just an update...my friend just called and he said he spoke to a coworker who lives at an apartment complex a few blocks away, closer to Uptown and 15 cars were broken into on the same night. It was probably the same guys. That is so ridiculous. 15 in addition to the two in our neighborhood. Who knows how many more cars these guys hit in the same night or over the weekend. It's sickening.
I think a lot of this is vandalism more than robbery. I think they just get off on vandalizing cars - and if they find anything - that is incidental. What jerks.
Sounds like you've landed in a not-so-good part of town. It's certainly not like that in the areas I've experienced, live in, and frequent here in Charlotte. To those reading this thread, please do not think this represents our fine city. But I guess this is like the unemployment thing...the percentage means nothing until you're hit...then it 100% sucks.
About the cameras, again, all you're going to get is some grainy images of some very general looking thugs walking in and walking out with your stuff in their arms. Unless you have some very high resolution cameras that can get a perfect angle on a face, the cops are going to say the same thing about your video as they did about the finger prints. Useless and/or they don't even want them.
The thing with finger prints is that the vast majority of folks out there may not be in any sort of database. If they've never been busted before, they're most certainly not. And even if they are, it's very difficult to lift an accurate, usable print...especially on non-smooth materials (like a screw driver).
I think your time and money will be better invested in trying to organize your community to fight back and thwart criminals. It sounds cheesy and impossible, but I've experienced it and been a contributing factor to successfully weeding out some trash from my old neighborhood. I'd call the cops every time I saw something out of the ordinary...and when I could tell it got to the point of them not caring and knowing it was me so they'd drag their feet, I'd make the call a little more excited (yes, borderline lying) by saying things like "I think a drug deal is going down right now" or "I saw something that looked like a gun" or "someone is driving drunk on my street narrowly missing people and cars." Technically, I wasn't lying to them...even though I knew it was highly unlikely to be exactly true. Eventually, the thugs knew that wheeling and dealing in my neighborhood was likely to get the cops called on you...or better yet, a high beam spot light and a pistol aimed at you (which did happen once).
I'm not saying put yourself in harm's way. I'm saying be more active than passive (which is what a camera is...very passive). I'd be floored if there's not enough concern in your neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods to not form a citizen's watch. As long as someone is willing to do a lot of the leg work to make it nearly effortless for others to get involved, folks will generally want to join. You don't have to go to extremes like my first cynical post indicated...although, I will firmly stand my ground on the fact that carrying will help you.
I dunno, Steve. I think having cameras is a good idea. At least it is something positive to do to try to keep things safe. If the cameras are up high . . .
I agree - thugs are probably not going to be easily identifiable on the tape, but maybe it would be enuff to at least tie some crimes together if the same group is repeating the offenses. And if even ONE perp were identified . . . that is something.
It is ridiculous that we are even having to talk about such things. There are roving thugs (usually kids under 21) who are marauding around the burbs . . . seems someone should see enuff to get these miscreants ID'd and charged w/ their crimes. If CMPD does not take fingerprints, then they won't have a database to tie these thugs to when they finally DO catch them. If they could tie them to 50 crimes, then it seems the judicial system would be more apt to lock 'em up. As it is, they catch them perpetrating ONE crime and they just go thru/ the revolving door . . . and end up back in our neighborhoods . . .
[quote=Metallisteve;7176574]Sounds like you've landed in a not-so-good part of town. It's certainly not like that in the areas I've experienced, live in, and frequent here in Charlotte. To those reading this thread, please do not think this represents our fine city. But I guess this is like the unemployment thing...the percentage means nothing until you're hit...then it 100% sucks.
So glad you said this, as I do agree. Although crime can occur anywhere that doesn't mean it is occuring all over Charlotte at the frequency at which poor Anu is being victimized. She did move into a nice place, but in an area near the 'hood - which makes her spot easy pickin's I'm afraid. Not of all of Charlottte is seeing crime quite like this.
I agree 100% with the connecting crimes together by fingerprints...I was just trying to show why they are not always taken (like on TV shows).
My beef with cameras is that you'll be spending a sizable chunk of change to get a system like the poster is taking about...one that dumps to a hard drive and has multiple angles. I've never specifically priced one out, but I'm venturing to say in the thousands for this type of setup. My point is that for that same money, you can do so much more proactively. Heck, if your main point is to deter crime with the cameras, just buy fake ones that look 100% real. Alternatives to cameras would be very bright (near annoyingly bright) flood lights that either stay on all night or are motion activated. Maybe get a sensitive car alarm (much cheaper than a camera system). On the notion of organizing the neighborhood, buy a web domain and put up a posting forum for residents to communicate via. Rent a community room to hold monthly meetings, print out fliers, buy newspaper ads, make signs to post around the neighborhood...paying for it just long enough to get the association established and able to support itself.
Think of all the video you've seen on the news of a gas station robbery. It's someone in a dark colored hooded sweatshirt (or wearing a hat). They're usually young and relatively fit looking. If they have a weapon, it's usually held sideways. Al racism aside, if they're black, good luck getting any facial detail out of it since most cameras are black and white and offer little to no contrast...and again, this is in a well lit store, not your dark front porch lit by a 40W sconce light.
[quote=Metallisteve;7176574]Sounds like you've landed in a not-so-good part of town. It's certainly not like that in the areas I've experienced, live in, and frequent here in Charlotte. To those reading this thread, please do not think this represents our fine city. But I guess this is like the unemployment thing...the percentage means nothing until you're hit...then it 100% sucks.
QUOTE]
I did a lot of research on my part of town before buying. The crime rate in the area was extremely low. And I don't agree that this isn't happening everywhere. My friends who live in Matthews and their neighbors got burglarized 4 weeks ago, my manager's two neighbors in South Park got burglarized, there has been a rash of car and house break-ins in Dilworth and South Park, Huntersville gets hit, we've even had crime at my highly secure office building in Huntersville. This is not a "my area" thing. It really is happening all over town.
[quote=Metallisteve;7176929]I agree 100% with the connecting crimes together by fingerprints...I was just trying to show why they are not always taken (like on TV shows).
Alternatives to cameras would be very bright (near annoyingly bright) flood lights that either stay on all night or are motion activated. Maybe get a sensitive car alarm (much cheaper than a camera system). On the notion of organizing the neighborhood, buy a web domain and put up a posting forum for residents to communicate via. Rent a community room to hold monthly meetings, print out fliers, buy newspaper ads, make signs to post around the neighborhood...paying for it just long enough to get the association established and able to support itself.
QUOTE]
I will probably get a motion activated light for my back yard but I can tell you my house is directly under a street light. I never even need to turn my front door light on because it is VERY bright. My car stays in the garage so I don't really need a car alarm (plus my car is worth about $1k so it doesn't matter). My neighborhood has contacted the city about crime watches and such (6 months ago). I don't know what came of that but I have noticed police cars going by on a VERY regular basis. We also do have a community board that we all post to VERY frequently. I'd say there are several posts per day (not just on crime). A bunch of us have large dogs. We all call 911 every time we see something suspicious. We keep a watch out for our neighbor's houses. We let neighbors know if we will be away for the weekend. I feel like we've done everything right but somehow this has still happened.
I've done a lot of research on cameras and in my opinion there is nothing out there good enough to capture detailed images/video of the perps. Most network survellence cams use low end CMOS image sensors with low resolution. Any camera over 640x480 resolution will be in the thousands. And if you're looking to save video based on motion detection, it's very complicated. Also, the quality of video taken at night will be even worse.
My suggestion, other than a fence, would be to get a security system that will allow for outside motion sensors. That way you'll be notified if someone is lurking on your property. You can even use them in conjunction w/ your suggested motion sensing flood lights. I personally use a wireless security system from frontpoint security. It uses cellular to talk to the monitoring station, all the sensors are wireless, the panel has battery backup, etc. You can even get txt messages when a sensor goes off; alerting you to someone being on your property. If you're not home, have a neighbor look through a window and check things out.
I've done a lot of research on cameras and in my opinion there is nothing out there good enough to capture detailed images/video of the perps. Most network survellence cams use low end CMOS image sensors with low resolution. Any camera over 640x480 resolution will be in the thousands. And if you're looking to save video based on motion detection, it's very complicated. Also, the quality of video taken at night will be even worse.
The surveillance camera thing is frustrating. My roommate is actually a producer for one of the local news stations and she would definitely put any "caught on tape" footage on air so even if the police can't use it, it may work by putting people's faces on TV. In this day and age there has got to be a system out there that can get fairly clear resolution, even at night! I am willing to pay up $1,500-$2k.
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