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Atlantic City is stepping up its focus on public safety by adding hundreds of new surveillance cameras.
The cameras are part of a $5 million investment in public safety. The plan will see more than 250 city-owned cameras installed throughout the seaside resort – adding to the 158 cameras already located along the boardwalk.
“The entire city, the neighborhoods, every street will be under surveillance,” Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small said, adding that the cameras will give law enforcement and community members “another layer of safety and protection.”
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The cameras will be controlled and monitored by officers in the city’s surveillance center. They will be installed on street poles and will surveil intersections and other areas that authorities have identified as being in need of “more video coverage,” Atlantic City Police Department Acting Chief James Sarkos said.
David Lichtenfels has lived in his neighborhood for four decades and said he welcomes the new surveillance cameras, arguing they work well on the boardwalk.
Bertha Cottman, another Atlantic City resident, also views the cameras favorably. “If it helps deter a crime or someone being assaulted, I’m all for it,” she said.
The cameras are set to start going up before the end of the year.
The money for the cameras is just part a $16 million injection of state funds for improvements in the city, including public works projects and boardwalk repairs.
“I think it has to be a ‘whole of Atlantic City’ approach,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy told NBC10. “Atlantic City won’t achieve its aspirations, its rightful place, unless everybody in the community does as well.”
