Why can't Richmond County set up video surveillance in front of known drug houses? The profit from the busts would pay for the video.
Smile.
There's an increasing chance a surveillance camera will catch your public expressions, and police say they're taking even better pictures, which proves helpful when they need to make an arrest.
"We are beginning to see more and more commercial companies and stores switching to digital from analog because of the enhanced images digital provides," said Columbia County sheriff's Capt. Steve Morris.
The past 10 years have seen surveillance cameras become prevalent at area stores, Aiken County sheriff's Investigator Viktoria Lagger said. She's also seeing some switch to digital systems, which offer better pictures and allow information to be stored longer than on a VHS tape.
Despite the growing use of digital, police say, there are still some older systems out there that don't provide quality images.
"Oftentimes we encounter systems operating with limited or minimum memory capabilities resulting in poor imagery," Capt. Morris said. "As in most things, you get what you pay for."
Still, police say any image gives them something to work with, and lately videos have helped in several cases.
Capt. Morris said one of the most recent in his county was the arrest of a man after an armed robbery last week at a Walgreens.
"In that case, images from the video were released to the media, and within a couple of hours, the suspect, Nathan Key, was positively identified," he said.
An unsolved case Columbia County police hope video will shed light on is a theft by deception that occurred Jan. 7 at an Evans McDonald's on Washington Road. A sheriff's office report states that a man ordered food, handed a cashier a $100 bill and swiped the bill back without the worker noticing. The worker then handed the man $97.14 in change.
In Aiken County, Investigator Lagger said, videos helped in a Nov. 11 robbery at a Waffle House, where "they have excellent video," and in a September robbery of a Regions Bank in Clearwater.
Aiken County police hope video will help them make an arrest in a Dec. 8 armed robbery at the Easy Stop convenience store on Belvedere Clearwater Road in North Augusta.
In Richmond County, sheriff's Maj. Ken Autry said videos "have been extremely helpful to us."
Investigators there have used videos to help solve burglaries and thefts. Currently, they're hoping the public can help identify a person in a video taken during a theft of catalytic converters at Yohe Plumbing on Franke Industrial Drive in Augusta.
In that case, police say, the owner is offering a $1,500 reward.
Reach Preston Sparks at (706) 823-3338 or preston.sparks@augustachronicle.com
See more surveillance video here.
Comments
Why can't Richmond County set up video surveillance in front of known drug houses? The profit from the busts would pay for the video.
they do. you have to have more than video to make a drug bust though.
What an eye-opening experience this article has been. It seems to me that all of the armed robberies had young men of color as the perpetrators. The crimes involving young white lads seemed to be one young man who was picking up some additional reading material, and the other white lad was shopping for some tylenol and contact lens solution before school. However a crime is a crime, and that's the lesson learned here.
Was Lt. X not availible for comment? How about a bat cam to capture the reall interesting things that happen in the night.
How can someone switch a 100 bill from you without you noticing that they did it ?
Deputies have to deal with thugs like the one in the video of Aiken County and are expected to wait until they are struck before keeping the thread down. This deputy unfortunatley did exactly what this thug wanted him to do and he even started yelling "Im going to get paid". If he would just get dressed and get a job he wouldn't be dealing with law enforcement anyway. The deputy could have done better but if he made a move towards me in that manner, I would push him back just as that deputy did because he certainly had the right to feel threatened. The real problem is that the parents, friends, relatives, and leaders of the community could care less if he has a job, walks around with his pants to his knees or anything else. This is the direction America is headed. There is absolutely no respect for one self and certainly not for authority. The officer, unless he had other cases shouldn't have been fired and if you think calling this guy a "teen" makes him look or act like a normal teenager, think again. There are thugs in all races but the parents and leaders in the black community need to really step up and educate their teen males in many areas including self respect.
a large percentage of the parents of these young thugs are thugs themselves.
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