Mayor Jerry Sanders held a news conference at Belmont Park Tuesday, Feb. 6, to announce the installation of additional streetlights and security cameras to deter crime in South Mission Beach.
District 2 Councilman Kevin Faulconer, San Diego Police Capt. Boyd Long, General Services Deputy Director Mario Sierra and Mission Beach Town Council member Bill Bradshaw were also in attendance and spoke to the crowd of journalists and interested citizens.
Faulconer pledged at a Nov. 3 press conference to find a way to have the cameras installed after the Oct. 15 home invasion robbery in Mission Beach in which two women were sexually assaulted.
At the same meeting, Lt. Brian Ahearn from San Diego Police Department’s (SDPD) Northern Division said the presence of these added security cameras would have been useful in the investigation not only in order to review the footage for possible suspect information, but also as a warning to criminals that they are being watched to prevent crime.
Long reiterated that fact at Tuesday’s press conference.
“These cameras automatically have a deterrent on crime,” Long said. “Ultimately people understand or see, because we are going to visually make sure people see signs that they are going to be on camera here, and what we see is generally that is a deterrent in itself.”
Long explained that there will be five cameras installed in Mission Beach. Three will be located in the south parking lot at Belmont Park. One will be along the west side of the park, watching the boardwalk both north and south. The fourth camera will be along the 700 block of Ventura Place and the fifth camera will be on the east side of the park.
William Ferris of Dotworkz Systems was present at the November meeting to show off the capabilities of Axis 213 PTZ Network Cameras that are going up.
The camera has a powerful optical zoom that will allow police to collect license plate information up to a quarter of a mile as well as identify a subject’s face at up to an eighth of a mile in the right lighting.
“This is a very powerful camera,” Ferris said in November. The camera can pan tilt 340-degrees and also tilts up and down and is expected to last five to six years due to its built in protection against sun, sand and rocks. The camera also allows for 24-hour viewing, meaning that the camera can clearly record during the nighttime hours.
According to Long, the camera project should be up and running within the next 45 to 60 days. The officers of the SDPD Northern Division Area Station will monitor the cameras.
The camera project cost a total of $88,483, with $45,000 funded by Proposition 40 state park bond funds while the other $43,483 was donated by the private sector to be administered by the San Diego Police Foundation.
Mike Turk, a Mission Beach resident as well as a member of the San Diego Lincoln Club and a builder for the area, helped to raise the private funds.
“I was notified a couple of days ago that there was a fallout in the funding,” Turk said. “So what did I do? I called on four fellow Lincoln Club members who are also builders and my competitors, and I said, ‘Do you want this to go down the drain or do you want to have cameras here and better security?’ Within five minutes we raised the money.”
Tom Armstrong, Bill Clapperty, Chris Love and Tim Cornell stepped forward with Turk to donate the money needed to fund the project.
The installation of additional streetlights will also assist officers during their nighttime patrols.
Sierra said seven security lights will be installed at Belmont Park and the surrounding parking lots. Four of the new lights will be mounted along El Carmel Place, while the other three locations will be determined later this week, Sierra said.
The light project costs a total of $85,000. Proposition 40 park bond funds accounted for $75,000 and the Park and Recreation Grand Match Funding provided $10,000.
According the Sierra, the general services department has already ordered some of the light poles that will be installed as soon as the locations are finalized.
Community members expressed their thanks and appreciation for the increased security measures.
“It is gratifying to see that we have a mayor and a city councilman who are action-oriented, who want to help us do something about this problem,” Bradshaw said. “I want to reiterate the thanks that other people have heaped on these two, because they have a lot of priorities in this city but they’ve seen this as a very important one. So I want to thank you again, Jerry and Kevin, on behalf of the Mission Beach community.”