A high-tech tool to keep downtown North Little Rock safe is off-line. Police tell us at least three surveillance cameras are down in the Argenta community. Sam Kassees says thieves got away with two bistro tables and chairs in front of Cafe La Pace early Sunday morning. "We came back around 9 or 10 o'clock [in the morning] and they were gone," says Kassees.
Less than a hundred feet away was a surveillance camera. "[I] called the North Little Rock police department they said at this point, the cameras aren't working," Kassees says. The reason, according to police, is Mother Nature. "About two weeks ago, or a week and a half ago, we had a storm that came through. That storm knocked out about a third of those cameras," says Sgt. Terry Kuykendall, North Little Rock Police Department.
"I would say it's pointless to have camera's up if they're not working or operating to any extent," replies Kassees. The police department tells us 3 of the 9 camera's in Argenta are down, but hope to have them up and running in a few days.
The vendor is expected to be in town this Friday to fix them. "Camera's are being recorded 24 hours a day if they're operational. If they're not operational for whatever reason can't be recorded, but they're not being monitored all the time. Even if the cameras are operational, depending on where those cameras are aimed, you're not going to pick up everything that's taking place on the street all the time," says Kuykendall.
Kuykendall added images taken from the cameras have helped make arrests in at least two cases. The cameras were installed last year with a price tag of $180,000, which came out of the city budget.
