Palm Springs to spend nearly $900,000 for new surveillance cameras

Nearly seven months after the city of Palm Springs' surveillance cameras failed to catch video of several businesses being vandalized in May of this year, the city's system is getting a new upgrade.

And it comes with a nearly $900,000 price tag.

For some, the changes come too late.

Boozehounds was one of four businesses within a three-mile radius that had their windows shattered by BB guns.

"What's really frustrating about it is we've got cameras here on the corner and you would assume those cameras were operational. They are not," former co-owner of Boozehounds, Jimmy McGill said.

Following the incident, Palm Springs Police told KESQ their outdated cameras had technical difficulties, that sometimes failed to catch incidents.

Police Chief Andy Mills said, "The reality is we have 15 year old cameras out in the weather, 124 degrees, heat, cold in the winter, snow, rain, dust, storms. They break."

The deal came Thursday night after the city council approved $899,982 to be spent over three years installing new cameras at 52 non-residential intersections.

The cameras will work with the city’s existing automated license plate reader cameras to monitor key areas 24/7. It's an advancement that Chief Mills says has led to breakthroughs in criminal arrests.

"They are an amazing tool to be able to find out who's doing crime and then being able to track it down. We've solved murders that way. We've solved assaults. We've solved overall a variety of crimes through the use of the flat cameras as well as the other cameras downtown."

However, not everyone is convinced the updates will deter crime.

The current owner of Boozehounds, Bryan Rogers said, "I don't know if a criminal necessarily thinks about a camera and $900,000 going into new cameras. I don't think they think about that before they're committing a crime or vandalizing property."

For more reporting on Flock surveillance cameras, visit: ‘Flock’ license plate reading cameras have led to more than 30 arrests, says Palm Springs Police Department