COMMERCE CITY – When Belle Creek resident Ed Newberry stepped to the city council microphones to talk about graffiti, little did he know that Commerce City Police Chief Phil Baca wanted to talk about Newberry’s proposed solution – a surveillance camera.
Newberry told council a heavy vehicle broke off 12 trees with a caliper between 4 and 5 inches thick.
“We are replacing a few that are dying,” Newberry said. “This additional burden of the vandals has put a strain on the resources. If we could get a surveillance camera, we could save a lot of money that we are spending washing graffiti off.”
Baca said the cost of one camera, depending on the model, would run about $4,000.
Newberry said the vandalism was bad enough without adding insult to injury.
“They put graffiti on top of graffiti,” he said. “You can see where the trees were snapped off. We had to cut them off at the ground.”
Newberry’s concerns came during public comment, a time when council is supposed to direct questions to city staff. The city attorney’s office tried to get council to do that, but council wasn’t listening.
Councilwoman Kathy Teter called the situation “ridiculous.”
“It infuriates me that people have to do this type of vandalism,” she said. “I am all for a surveillance camera.”
Councilman Jason McEldowney wanted to be sure where the city’s responsibility rested.
“I understand it’s a big hit,” he said. “I know the metro district that supports my neighborhood allocates a portion of funds for tree replacement. I want to make sure we are taking on a responsibility that’s appropriate.”
Council wound up asking staff to look into the problems of the tree damage and the graffiti.
More on cameras
In a separate agenda item, council heard about Baca’s hopes to spend $19,200 on a Justice Assistance Grant for the police department, including the chance of a surveillance camera.
“Cameras can be used to identify certain kinds of criminal activity,” he said. “There’s always an issue with cameras – where are they are going to be placed. They are not a panacea. But they can be of assistance. They are on our list.”
The cameras are portable.
“It’s a video camera. It’s very high resolution,” Baca said. “It has its own light source – infrared for many of them. We can read a license plate. Very seldom can we see a face.”
Baca also wants to institute a new software program to track items that come into the department’s possession and to make it easier to get rid of things it doesn’t need.
“There’s other electronic equipment we could purchase,” Baca said. “We are looking at internal affairs professional software that will help us track citizen complaints and help us with accreditation.”
Park work
In other business, council unanimously approved an ordinance to amend the budget so it can spend a $312,000 Adams County Open Space grant at Fairfax Park.
The money would be used for a new irrigation system and maintenance building.