Victory Church pastor calls for Albany PD cameras
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Pastor Charlie Muller says he's tired of relying on low-quality local business cameras like these to catch crime in his neighborhood. He's calling on the Albany Police Department to install high-tech cameras of their own to capture crime.
Victory Church sits on Quail and Bradford Streets. The intersection of trash, homelessness, and crime.
“We have to clean this every couple of days, crazy," Muller said showing us litter in front of his church.
Things got so bad for neighboring homes and businesses that an adjacent construction warehouse installed sprinklers to ward off loiterers. Local business cameras give a bird's eye view of the problems here. Muller opted not to show us footage due to safety concerns. He says he tried to get cops involved.
“We turned over murders on video but my question was what's being done?" said Muller.
The clergyman also complains that not enough arrests are being made. Now he wants official police cameras to surveil the hot spot.
“We have cameras that will catch you going through a red light, and they're very good cameras. Well, why don't we ship that funding and say let's keep our city safe? Let's keep these shootings from happening by putting up cameras in hotspots and shutting down those spots where all this crime is taking place" said Muller.
But a local beat cop showed me that Albany PD has access to the business cameras. Trees were even cut down in the area to make sure their view wasn’t obstructed. Still, the pastor says Albany PD needs their own high-definition, high-tech cameras with amenities like license plate readers to better capture crime.
“C’mon, man! Let’s do something that we’re not doing!”
Pastor Charlie says if he can't get the Albany Police Department to install their cameras he'll take it upon himself and install his own cameras. NEWS10 contacted the Albany Police Department with Pastor Charlie’s concerns and — as of this publication — we're awaiting a response.