08:07 AM CDT on Thursday, June 29, 2006

By Shern-Min Chow / 11 News

Click to watch video

A liquor store robbery in Chinatown left one crook dead.

KHOU-TV

Surveillance camera

A 14-year-old was killed in broad daylight in a neighborhood park in an apparent gang attack near Montrose.

And downtown Houston, a financial and entertainment center.

The three areas may soon linked by surveillance cameras. 

“It is a growing aspect of our public safety and homeland security issues,” said city councilman Adrian Garcia.

After a rash of crimes, the Asian American Business Council has been looking into buying a camera for business areas.

“We want to tie everybody’s together where we have a monitoring station eventually and we have a place for central storage,” said member Jackson Chang.

Police could go there to view any crimes digitally caught on computer.

“The recording time can be up to 30 days,” said store owner Grace Feng.

As we reported in March, the Downtown Business District has made the same offer to the city.  They’ve bought the equipment, hoping HPD will monitor the cameras.

Other cities have similar systems.

“Both New York and Chicago. What we’re hearing from them is that they’re having dramatic effects,” said Garcia.

In fact, Dallas police say their test project last year, resulted in a 9 percent drop in overall crime and a 34 percent drop in violent crime.

The brutal attack in Chew Park left neighbors worried about their safety and asking about cameras, too.

“Personal security, to me, that’s a really positive thing and in fact, that’s the way they found the people who bombed the subways in London,” said a Chew Park neighbor.