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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — One man was fatally stabbed whereas one other was discovered bleeding to demise on New 12 months’s Day in Atlantic Metropolis, the playing resort that’s at the moment including tons of of recent safety cameras to the 1000’s already conserving an electrical eye on this busy vacationer vacation spot.
The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Workplace mentioned police responded to a 911 name at 6:15 a.m. Monday of a person discovered bleeding on a road close to the seashore who later died at a hospital. Little greater than an hour later, police acquired a second 911 name a couple of 22-year-old man was pronounced useless from a number of stab wounds close to the Boardwalk.
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The deaths don’t look like associated, and no arrests had been made as of Tuesday afternoon, authorities mentioned. However it’s circumstances like these which have raised calls for brand spanking new cameras amid heightened calls for for elevated public safety in a playing resort visited by 27 million folks a 12 months.
In October, the town introduced a $5 million state-financed program to put in 200 cameras with 5 unbiased lenses apiece all through metropolis neighborhoods. Police Chief James Sarkos says that’s akin to deploying 1,000 new cameras to complement the three,000 private and non-private ones already up and operating.
Whereas not sufficient to cowl each inch of the 48-block metropolis, the overwhelming majority of Atlantic Metropolis can be lined as soon as the mission is accomplished later this 12 months.
But the stakes are excessive for a resort depending on vacationers and their cash; if gamblers, vacationers and others don’t really feel protected in Atlantic Metropolis, they’ll go elsewhere.
“Public security is extraordinarily vital in Atlantic Metropolis,” mentioned Sarkos, who referred to as the cameras “a power multiplier” that extends the attain of officers into spots the place they’re not bodily current. “It’s an enormous funding in public security, and it’s going to make Atlantic Metropolis safer for everyone.”
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Neither metropolis police nor the county prosecutor’s workplace would say whether or not the community of current cameras on and close to the Boardwalk and on neighborhood streets captured any pictures that may support the investigation into the 2 New 12 months’s deaths.
A Nov. 7 murder close to Boardwalk Corridor additionally stays unsolved. Authorities additionally wouldn’t say whether or not an outside safety digital camera mounted on a close-by constructing yielded something helpful in that investigation.
Statistics offered by the police division present a number of classes of main crime elevated in 2023 in contrast with the earlier 12 months. From Jan. 1 by way of Nov. 26, there have been seven homicides in Atlantic Metropolis, in contrast with six over the identical interval a 12 months earlier. Aggravated assaults rose from 317 in 2022 to 355 final 12 months, and robberies from 189 to 194 over that very same interval.
Metropolis and state officers have labored arduous to handle broadly held issues about public security in Atlantic Metropolis, investing tens of millions.
However Related Press interviews carried out earlier than the most recent deaths present that altering perceptions is not going to occur in a single day.
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“I don’t imagine Atlantic Metropolis is protected,” mentioned Leonard Corridor of Mullica Hill, New Jersey. “Secure is with the ability to stroll round with out your life in elevated hazard. I’m for extra cameras, however that’s not going to cease criminals. Some folks say they’d a superb expertise however that doesn’t take away from the stabbings, shootings, thefts, or assaults which have occurred to others.”
Nonetheless, Ed Jessup of Brooklyn, New York, mentioned he feels protected strolling round in Atlantic Metropolis, and never simply on the Boardwalk.
“I’ve shopped on the shops, went to dinner and felt superb,” he mentioned. “You simply have to pay attention to your environment after darkish.”
Police in Las Vegas, whose inhabitants of 646,000 folks is 17 instances bigger than that of Atlantic Metropolis and which has greater than six instances as many casinos, wouldn’t focus on that metropolis’s use of safety cameras aside from to say know-how performs an vital half in public security.
Jeff Behm, an Atlantic Metropolis resident, referred to as the cameras “an ideal concept that may solely assist.”
“Elements of Atlantic Metropolis really feel protected, however most locations don’t after darkish,” he mentioned. “In fact, in the event that they catch the criminals however they’re again on the streets the subsequent day, the cameras gained’t assist a lot.”
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Amy Jackson of York, Pennsylvania, mentioned the cameras make her really feel safer.
“We’d wish to promote that AC has cameras, so suppose twice earlier than committing a criminal offense,” she mentioned.
Town has had cameras on its Boardwalk since 2016.
They haven’t solely helped resolve quite a few crimes, together with a near-fatal stabbing, a housebreaking, and a purse-snatching, but in addition discovered misplaced youngsters and aged guests who wandered off. They even thwarted a bogus damage declare during which a person noticed a barely raised board on the walkway, laid down subsequent to it, and referred to as for assist, saying he had tripped on it, fallen and injured himself, mentioned Lt. Kevin Honest.
The brand new cameras, in addition to most current ones, are monitored in actual time by a surveillance unit at police headquarters, staffed by retired cops. Incoming requires assist might be shortly linked to digital camera feeds exhibiting the world from which the decision got here, permitting officers to see what is occurring earlier than they even arrive.
Although the cameras don’t use facial recognition, they’ll swiftly glean data describing a suspect similar to their colour of clothes, footwear — or a automobile related to a criminal offense.
Non-public companies, together with the 9 casinos, can shortly and simply share their very own digital camera feeds with police when wanted, Sarkos added.
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Observe Wayne Parry on X, previously Twitter, at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC
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