CLEVELAND HEIGHTS — Cleveland Heights plans to increase and upgrade its security measures to keep local neighborhoods safe.
“You can’t ever have enough security,” said Master Stylist Elizabeth Tippie, who works at Eddy's on Coventry in Cleveland Heights.
Besides making sure clients walk out feeling good, Tippie told News 5 it’s also important for customers to feel safe.
“This community here is definitely a sense of family. We have a lot of foot traffic around here,” Tippie said.
Tippie has been working as a Master Stylist at Eddy’s on Coventry for years.
She told News 5 she feels the neighborhood is safe, and these cameras, located several doors down from the salon on Coventry and Hampshire roads, provide an additional layer of protection.
She said she also knows crime is inevitable, so she supports the city’s decision to overhaul and expand its security camera network.
“I think that most businesses feel a little bit better knowing not all that liability lies on them, but also having the city contribute to that security is a very good contribution,” Tippie said.
The city plans to roll out these new cameras in each of its business districts, including on Noble Road and Monticello Boulevard.
The city will also install security devices at new locations, such as its arts facility, Cain Park and the remainder of its city parks.
Then once it’s installed, the new system will replace the existing cameras— but with increased capabilities.
“Some of our cameras are 12 years old at this point, and if you can imagine how far your cell phone camera has evolved in the last 12 years, we have technology now that we simply didn’t have a decade ago,” Cleveland Heights Mayor Kahlil Seren said.
Seren said the current cameras are outdated.
He says the system is even more challenging since it’s built primarily on a wireless system, which prevents law enforcement from getting live action and archive camera footage due to failing antennas.
Yet, with this state-of-the-art fiber infrastructure, the city believes these necessary improvements will create more efficient surveillance.
“Over the course of the last few years, a variety of different types of crimes have gone up, and we want to make sure that we’re responding,” Seren said.
Even with these advancements, ACLU Spokesperson Gary Daniels said he’s concerned it’ll do more harm than good.
“There is no proof that these types of systems, this type of surveillance works in reducing crime or solving crime,” Daniels said. “But what we see instead is communities across Ohio, including in the Cleveland area, expanding surveillance and oftentimes using federal money to do so.”
This project is expected to begin this fall, with just over $1 million coming from county and city ARPA dollars.
Watch live and local news any time:
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
