With about 100 cameras in Five Points, nearly every action is caught on surveillance. This has helped lead to identifying and the capture of many suspects in property and violent crimes.
Recently, there was a fight where the media sought to obtain the footage to release to the public in efforts of finding the perps. This brought up an unforeseen issue; who owns the footage?
The cameras were put into place with revenue from the Five Points Association, City of Columbia, and donations from Statewide Security Systems. Statewide is a local security camera business and the owner Carey Shealy donated a retail value of $50,000 worth of cameras. With a monthly fee, Five Points Association pays Statewide to maintain the cameras and the footage.
In all technicality, Shealy owns the rights to all footage because he owns the cameras. The issue here is whether he should be required to hand over the footage and to whom he should give the footage. In the past he has been very helpful and willing to give any of the surveillance to the cops as they saw necessary. However, he has not always released it straight to the press.
There has been many articles and circulating questions as to whether these cameras are necessary, if they really help deter crime, and if they can help find criminals.
Many people visiting Five Points at night already feel unsafe and it's important that these cameras capture crimes, especially violent ones. However, I feel that the City of Columbia should own all rights to the surveillance and not the owner of the company. It's too risky to think that Shealy may one day decide to not comply with cops request to view the footage to help solve a crime.
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