Municipality of Anchorage to install cameras in Town Square Park

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance announced that the municipality will be installing cameras around Town Square Park to aid police efforts in the area.

The cameras were discussed in further detail at a press conference on Wednesday, where several topics regarding homelessness were addressed.

“We’re hoping first of all, first and foremost, that this will be a deterrent,” said Anchorage Police Department Chief Sean Case during the Wednesday press conference, “that some of the activity that is taking place in Town Square Park, that’s impacting businesses or impacting those that want to use Town Square Park, that activity will be reduced just by the fact that there’s cameras that are operating.”

Case said the cameras are part of a pilot project and are designed to aid in responding to calls in the area.

The cameras will be placed in four locations along the borders of the park, and signs will be posted indicating that they are recording.

When asking Anchorage residents in the area about their thoughts on the cameras, some expressed concerns about privacy. One person said she was surprised that the park didn’t already have cameras. She also questioned who would be monitoring the footage and how it would be used.

Case said that in addition to being a deterrent, it will aid in investigating calls in the area.

“A lot of the challenges in Town Square Park, with doing enforcement action in that area, is typically by the time the officers get there to conduct the investigation, the people, the witnesses, the victims, they’re gone,” Case said. “And so that information, you know, now is lost, and so we can’t take enforcement action. So that’s kind of the idea and the objective behind the cameras.”

Christoff Jeffers, a manager who works at Humpy’s Alehouse and Flattop Pizza and Pasta across the street, endorsed the installation of the cameras.

“We’re all for it,” Jeffers said. “We have security cameras on our property, and we also face the street, so something more to keep an eye on some of the issues that happen downtown would be a good idea.”

Case was unable to give a timeline of when the cameras would be installed, but confirmed that they had been ordered.

Additionally, while APD uses traffic cameras to help solve crimes in certain instances, Case said in part that, “this is the first time the police department would have access to cameras that are outside of our properties — police department property” for monitoring and enforcement.

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