Businesses in Waterbury are asking why surveillance cameras aren’t working downtown.
In February the city said the new crime-fighting tools would be running in a matter of weeks, but months later, that still isn't the case.
Over the last few months, the city has put up fourteen cameras on downtown buildings, but business owners say none of them work.
“I see them yes, but they don't work,” said Corinne DeSantis. She was waiting for the camera across from her salon on Grand Street to turn on.
“A month ago, Fine Craft Jewelers was robbed. A guy went in there to look for a ring,” DeSantis said. She said working cameras could have made the culprit think twice about targeting the stores here.
DeSantis and others wanted to know why the cameras weren’t running yet. The mayor announced changes were on the way in February.
Waterbury police admitted the process had not been easy.
“We had to put it up to bid... find a vendor to supply us then install them. We also had to find appropriate locations for them it was quite a process to map it out,” said Deputy Chief Chris Corbett.
Right now the final and fifteenth camera was getting set up. Once that happened, it should be a matter of weeks until the Waterbury Police Department started to monitor all of them 24 hours a day. “This is going to be very important to safety downtown,” Corbett explained.
Police will keep the video for 20 days, and they can rewind it to track down possible culprits. Something business owners said was critical. “I think more people would want to come down it would feel safer,” Corinne DeSantis said. She explained it would be better for them and their customers.
Police said all cameras should be working by the end of August.
