Roanoke cameras intended to monitor high-traffic areas
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The watchful eye of this camera at the intersection of Franklin Road and Highway 431 in Roanoke will soon provide surveillance information to the Roanoke Police Department.
Three surveillance cameras have been installed near what are considered high-traffic intersections in Roanoke and will begin to be monitored soon.
The cameras came as a result of a $75,000 grant that the city procured over two years ago. They are intended to provide police with firsthand information should an incident occur at any of the three locations.
The cameras are currently installed at the intersections of Highway 431 and Highway 22 on a power pole at Corner One gas station, at the intersection of Franklin Road and Highway 431, and on Chestnut Street near the intersection with Strozier Street.
These are not the Flock cameras with license plate recognition technology that have been the source of recent controversy, but Roanoke Police Chief Tino Brooks said they should be high-resolution enough to read plates should that information be needed from an accident or incident, such as a hit and run.
The difference is that the cameras will not actively read a car’s license plate, but they will have the ability to provide a view of plates when that information is needed.
The cameras will also help corroborate the stories of eyewitnesses at the scene of an accident to verify how that accident may have occurred, and who was at fault.
Mayor Adam Melton admitted at Monday’s meeting of the Roanoke City Council that he has heard some of the privacy invasion complaints from citizens as a result of the cameras. But because the money for the cameras came from a grant, the city did not want to jeopardize future grants by not following through on this one.
“We have an obligation,” Melton said. “When you apply for a grant and you don’t follow through with it, it can really affect your ability to ever get another grant.”
The grant was awarded in 2024, prior to when Melton and three new city council members took office earlier this year.
“We became aware that the city had accepted and had already paid out $52,000 of that money for the placement of those cameras,” Melton said.
The city had a choice to give back that $75,000 — $52,00 of which had already been spent — or complete the installation process and fulfill the terms of the grant.
“So that’s what we did,” Melton said. “We put the cameras up and did what the previous administration had agreed to do.”
The installation included a total cost of $3,000 — $1,000 at each camera location — to install an internet connection to allow the cameras to send their signals back to monitors at the Roanoke police station.
“We made the right decision by following through on the grant,” Melton added. “There’s no doubt in my mind.”
