By Armchair Mayor

ROTHENBURGER: Take the fuzz out of video camera surveillance

Jan 30, 2019 | 4:40 AM

KAMLOOPS — A QUESTION about all those store robberies — why is the quality of surveillance videos so poor?

There have been four robberies at downtown stores this month, at least three of which have been recorded on surveillance cameras.

Those videos have been released to the public in hopes they can help with identifying the robbers. They’re so fuzzy they don’t do much more than show the colour of their hoodies.

Lots of ideas are floating around about what to do about armed robberies in the downtown shopping area. There’s the standard stuff about not keeping too much money in the cash register, having good lighting and so on but the quality of video footage doesn’t get mentioned.

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Good video surveillance can potentially show enough of the perpetrator, or perhaps identify a specific part of his or her clothing, that it can give police an upper hand in investigations.

And, experts say, when robbers are confronted with video of themselves committing the crime, they quite often confess.

It’s not lack of technology; cost appears to be the problem. A cheap video surveillance system can be purchased for a few hundred dollars; more expensive ones cost a few thousand. Yet even bank-robbery videos are of questionable quality. Last year, when there was a spate of bank robberies downtown, surveillance video looked as fuzzy as the stuff in the average convenience store.

Some downtown merchants are talking about going cashless in an effort to combat the problem. It might make a difference, though some businesses decline credit cards due to the cost, so it’s not the answer for everyone.

Seems to me, though, that investing in a higher quality of video surveillance would be a help in identifying — and hopefully deterring — the bad guys.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.