MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Over the past several weeks, WREG did stories about outbreaks of burglaries all around the Mid-South.
People are resorting to high-tech measures to turn the tables on crooks. Surveillance cameras are not only becoming more affordable, but they’re also helping police catch criminals.
“You can get $15 cameras, you can get $80 cameras, you can get $8,000 cameras,” Clint Buchanan with Security Consultants in Memphis said.
Although you can find cameras for as cheap as $15, you may have to pay a little more for better quality.
“Is it grainy, is it clear, and that’s what you’re getting when you’re buying cameras,” Buchanan said. “Some of them have good pictures, some of them have the grainy pictures.”
He said although quality matters, homeowners need to do their research in order to keep their homes safe.
“It’s not so much the price, it’s what the camera is made up of and what kind of warranty it has, what kind of guarantee it has and when you buy the camera, is the company going to be there so you can send it back,” he said.
There are also prices online for less than $50.
WREG asked Buchanan if homeowners are safe even if they pay a little less for their cameras.
“No, because cameras don’t make you safe, burglar alarm systems make you safe, that’s what warns you that a person’s coming in; a camera doesn’t,” he said.
Horn Lake Police Lt. Scott Evans said cameras do make a difference when trying to solve crimes, and they can cost as little as $300.
“It helps a lot,” he said. “I can honestly say we have solved crimes that we probably wouldn’t have solved because we have a good picture of a suspect that’s stealing from somebody’s house. I know in the past, we have put surveillance out in the news and we get calls.”