Police chief : Cameras have cut Toledo crime

8/29/2013

Toledo Police Chief Derrick Diggs told the media Wednesday that the department’s real-time crime center has helped bring down the crime rate in the city.

Chief Diggs said crime, including violent and gun-related offenses, is down because of the department’s “multifaceted” intelligence-led approach that includes the use of crime-surveillance cameras. Chief Diggs did not say by how much.

Chief Diggs spoke at the Safety Building in downtown Toledo during a news conference. It was attended by representatives of Ohio law enforcement agencies after Chief Diggs showcased the real-crime center on the sidelines of a monthly meeting of the Northern Ohio Crime Consortium.

“We have preliminary data that indicates that there is a deterrence effect attributable to those cameras,” Dave Licate, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Akron, said after the news conference.

Professor Licate said he and Eric Jefferis, a professor of public health at Kent State University, have been evaluating the effectiveness of crime-surveillance cameras for NOCC and have yet to quantify the results of their research.

Police spokesman Sgt. Joe Heffernan, said Toledo police have between 70 and 80 cameras, with another 70 to 80 “arriving anytime.”