MEMPHIS, Tenn. — When it comes to getting grant money for security systems, the Cooper-Young area of Midtown has it figured out, and it’s showing other neighborhoods how to get a piece of the pie.
Cooper-Young installed more than 70 security cameras on people’s homes and directed them at streets and alleys.
The cameras are similar to the ones you’d buy for you home.
The neighborhood watch started installing the cameras several months ago in hopes of deterring crime.
Now, other neighborhoods want to launch similar systems.
“We have theft. We have people breaking into cars,” said Linda Williams, president of the Rozelle-Annesdale Neighborhood Association.
She said crime is spread out in her neighborhood.
You can tell that too by looking at a map from MPD of the crime reported in the past three months.
Williams said SkyCop cameras aren’t feasible either.
“Places like Chickasaw and along Walnut Grove, they can afford to buy those. We cannot afford to buy those, and we need to have another option,” she said.
So she asked Aaron James with Cooper-Young Neighborhood Watch to come to their meeting and explain how they got $15,000 in city grant money to install the cameras.
“That’s what is most important, first getting your neighbors to communicate, and then second, getting neighborhoods to communicate with one another,” he said.
James talked about what they did, what kinks they worked out and what’s working best like adding motion-activated lights.
Those in the meeting took notes and hope other neighborhoods do the same.
“Why reinvent the wheel? One neighborhood is doing something that’s successful, so share that with the other neighbors,” said Williams.
Right now, it’s hard to measure Cooper-Young’s success since the kinks are still being worked out.
They did tell WREG they caught about eight crimes on their cameras so far and turned the footage over to officers.
They plan on installing more cameras in the entertainment district too.
