The Aurora Police Department received initial approval from Aurora City Council members June 18 to purchase about $260,000-worth of surveillance technology by the end of the year to help catch perpetrators and prevent crime.
The surveillance technology was imperative because the police department’s existing cameras and video transmission systems are out of date, said Aurora Police Lt. Dan Mark at council’s study session meeting.
“We have some limitations in our current equipment,” he said.
Council members gave the police department approval to add or replace existing surveillance cameras with new cameras capable of transmitting compressed video from Colfax Avenue. They’ll also install a wireless system capable of transmitting video from an area on Colfax to monitors located at the Aurora Municipal Center.
With the advancements in the video transmission system, the surveillance videos won’t be as choppy, Mark said.
The police department will also be installing two automated license-plate readers on eastbound Colfax Avenue at Yosemite Street, and two readers on westbound Colfax Avenue at Peoria Street.
They’ll also be installing four fixed readers on Colfax Avenue near Macon Street, and two mobile readers on two patrol cars.
The devices, which are similar to those already in use on some patrol cars, can scan license plates and check them against a police database, looking for vehicles connected to suspects and determining which cars were in the area of a particular crime.
“This has been used all over the country very successfully in fighting crime,” Mark said.
Annual maintenance for the police surveillance improvements will cost about $25,000.
Money to buy and maintain the new equipment will come from the city’s Technology Efficiency Fund, and most of the fixed surveillance cameras will be located in north Aurora along East Colfax Avenue, where statistics show most of the city’s gun violence occurs.
Council members at the study session meeting balked at spending thousands of dollars on the police department’s plan to implement expensive gunshot recognition technology along a small portion of East Colfax Avenue.
“It just seems, and this is my own opinion, that finding out where a gunshot came from to me is not as important as having the cameras,” said Councilwoman Barb Cleland.
Councilwoman Molly Markert said it didn’t make sense to purchase that type of technology because it would only be installed in a small area on Colfax.
According to city documents, one company would charge about $175,000 to install the technology in a 3.5-square mile area and annual maintenance fees would amount to about $140,000.
“I’ve often wondered if the area to be protected is interested in paying a portion of the cost by establishing special district or metro district in that area,” Markert said.
Police officers have lauded the use of surveillance technology to catch criminals, but in the past, civil liberty advocates have argued that cameras and other devices can infringe on law-abiding citizens’ privacy.
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said in late May he doesn’t anticipate that being a problem, in part because the businesses and residents along Colfax have worked well with police in recent years to crack down on crime there.
“That’s a community that is already very vibrant and active with us as partners to reduce crime,” he said.
And, the cameras don’t equate to the type of blanket surveillance that some major cities rely on, he said. “I’m not overly concerned that anyone is going to feel any sort of Big Brother presence,” he said.
Aurora Sentinel reporter Brandon Johansson contributed to this report.
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.