Special Cameras Have Reduced Violent Crime, D.C. Police Chief Tells Council Committee

Dozens of crime cameras that cost the D.C. police department $4 million last year to purchase and install across the city have aided police investigations and led to a decrease in crime, Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said yesterday.

Lanier, testifying before the D.C. Council's Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary in a review of the department's performance over the past fiscal year, said last year was a safer one in the city.

At the end of 2008, violent crime decreased 5 percent and gun crimes also fell, including a 12 percent reduction in armed robberies and a 4 percent reduction in assaults with guns, Lanier said. Last summer, there were fewer gun crimes than during any summer since at least 2003, she said.

Lanier credited the cameras with contributing to a decrease in the number of violent crimes within 1,000 feet of each location.

The crime camera program began in August 2006. There are now more than 70 crime cameras spread throughout the city. Wards 5 and 8 have the most cameras -- 12 -- while Ward 3 has just two, the lowest number of any ward, according to the department's Web site.

Under D.C. law, the cameras can train their lenses only on public spaces, like sidewalks and streets. They operate 24 hours a day, and the images are reviewed by police if crimes are reported nearby. Video recordings typically are kept for 10 days unless there is a criminal investigation and an arrest, in which case the tapes are stored. No sound is recorded.

In her testimony, Lanier pointed to prosecutions in three homicide cases that benefited from tapes from the cameras. In November 2007, the cameras even documented a homicide in progress, she said. That case has not been closed.

The cameras, Lanier said, "really help us build the case that we need."