Story Created:
Nov 29, 2009 at 6:32 PM EST
Story Updated:
Nov 29, 2009 at 6:48 PM EST
UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - With the three back-to-back violent incidents in bars over the past week, Councilman Jim Zecca is calling for surveillance cameras to be placed in area bars.
Zecca says he was very upset when he heard about the stabbing involving patrons of a bar earlier this week that left one man dead, and he says it's time something is done to try and prevent fights at bars that lead to stabbings and shootings.
Zecca says if bars have surveillance cameras, he feels people tend not to get involved in fights. This is because they know they will be held responsible, and points to the success of cameras inside and out of many of the bars along Varick Street.
He says they installed cameras within the past couple of years after violence broke out along Varick Street during the St. Patrick's Day festivities of past years. He says that since then, the violence there has been curbed.
Now he says he may look to the State Liquor Authority to see if state laws could be changed, or may look into changing city law to require security cameras in certain cases. Zecca said, "Make it a requirement, if you have one or two incidents that are serious like the one that occurred here, it would be mandated to do so, if they don't, they would lose their license.
The councilman says there's another violence prevention tool coming to Utica. The city is about to receive an armored car from the Brinks armored car service out of Albany.
According to Zecca, Brinks does not want the vehicles to end up in their competitors hands, so they are donating them to police departments across the country for ten dollars.
The department will install surveillance camera equipment in it, then it can be left un-manned inside problem neighborhoods, or even outside of bars where there have been violent incidents.
Zecca says the sooner the armored car is up and running the better, he's just not sure who soon the city will be able to equip the car with the surveillance equipment.
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