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OPINIONS
Thumbs up: Cameras can be important tool against crime
Huntington authorities soon will have another tool in their efforts to combat trouble on 4th Avenue in downtown, and the extra help can't come soon enough.
Surveillance cameras are scheduled to be installed within the next couple of weeks on a section of 4th Avenue where gunfire erupted in front of a nightclub on Nov. 8. If the cameras had already been operating, police might have a better handle on how a shooting at Club Babylon, located in the 800 block of 4th Avenue, began on that early morning. When police arrived, three people were already wounded outside the club. A fourth person was killed inside the club by a police officer, police have reported.
The city already has 41 cameras at Harris Riverfront Park, Big Sandy Superstore Arena and the municipal parking garage at 8th Street and 3rd Avenue. They can digitally record footage that is saved to a computer hard drive and available for review if a crime occurs.
Cameras for 4th Avenue were approved early this year, but equipment shortcomings and other complications have delayed installation. However, the nightclub shooting, one of several shootings at or near 4th Avenue clubs in recent years, underscores the need to get the cameras up and running as quickly as possible.
Having surveillance cameras along the downtown section of 4th Avenue is not a cure-all. But their presence might serve as a deterrent to some potential troublemakers and give police another means to find out who the real troublemakers are.
