Sniper Investigation: Cameras’ Increasing Presence Helps Police
An increasing number of video surveillance cameras in use by businesses, citizens, and government agencies are benefiting law enforcement investigations.
A typical public outing will typically mean capture on more than 12 surveillance tapes, and the increasing technology of surveillance means images can be saved to compact disc for use by law enforcement; previous surveillance versions copied over tapes after 24 hours, making the information worthless.
Investigators are hoping technology continues to improve, because most surveillance tapes are too poor in terms of image quality to use.
ACLU Ohio executive director Chris Link supports use of surveillance to prevent crime and investigate crimes but laments a lack of legislation protecting use of video in other instances.
Officers investigating 23 shootings in Ohio believe they are looking for a dark-colored Ford Taurus or Mercury Sable due to video placing such a car at the scene of a drive-by shooting and at the scene of a highway overpass shooting.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Columbus Dispatch (02/14/04) P. 1A; Futty, John; Nirode, Jodi.