Police officers and sheriff’s deputies can’t be everywhere so it makes sense these days to take advantage of technology to help deter crime and solve it. That’s why it makes sense to install security cameras in New Iberia parks to help address ongoing issues with vandalism or other crimes.

While no final decision has been made, at last week’s meeting of the New Iberia City Council the idea of installing security camera to monitor City Park and West End Park seemed to get a lot of support.

The estimated $20,000 cost of the security camera system is not cheap, but if it eliminates a few instances of park property being destroyed or damaged, the savings on replacements and repairs might help offset the upfront cost. And if it prevents some park visitor’s car from getting stolen or vandalized or a park visitor from being robbed or worse, the investment will look even better.

The installation of security cameras and some signs calling attention to park visitors that their actions are being monitored should have a positive effect on helping most area knuckleheads to be better behaved, at least on park property. And if the knuckleheads don’t heed the warnings and do something bad, hopefully the security cameras would allow them to be identified and prosecuted, quickly.

This discussion raises the question, might there be some joint effort between local governments — the city of New Iberia, Iberia Parish Government, Jeanerette, Loreauville, Delcambre, the school system — where some sort of movable camera system might be purchased and shared, and moved from time to time to watch trouble spots, spots that need attention but for which there’s just not enough money for a permanent monitoring system.

Maybe it could be used to monitor an illegal dumping site for a few weeks, and later be put near a parking lot where theft and vandalism are a problem. No doubt we can’t afford to put video surveillance on every potential trouble spot in the community but if there was some sort of shared, portable monitoring system, the shared upfront cost might make it affordable and it would serve to increase the deterrent to area knuckleheads who would soon learn that they couldn’t always know if they were being watched.

 It’s a shame we need such systems in the first place, but if there were more of them in place, or if there were more places that were being monitored, even if just now and then, then perhaps the threat of being seen and caught would provide enough deterrent to keep some from exhibiting the knucklehead behavior that suggests the need for these cameras in the first place.

WILL CHAPMAN

PUBLISHER