- At a news conference held earlier today at the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Dave Wedding unveiled a new surveillance system that was recently installed at the Keystone Subdivision.
Earlier this year, Sheriff Wedding approached the Keystone Homeowners Association Board with an idea to place state of the art security cameras at all the entrances of Keystone Subdivision. With 418 homes and six separate entrances, Keystone is the county’s largest subdivision.
As in any subdivision, a major concern of homeowners is property crime. Now the residents of Keystone can sleep better at night and feel more at ease about leaving their homes unattended while they work, now that cameras are recording activity in their neighborhood.
Sergeant Matt Hill with the Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Section explained, “A common type of crime we investigate in the county are vehicle break-ins. Typically a group of thieves arrive in a vehicle, walk through a neighborhood, ransacking vehicles or unsecured garages, and then drive away. These new cameras are designed to work well at night and will allow us to capture images of the perpetrators and their vehicle.”
After speaking with the Sheriff earlier in the year, the Keystone board members voted to implement the system. The Sheriff’s Office provided a grant to Keystone to start the project, with the remaining cost being absorbed by the homeowners association.
Business Communications Solutions (BCS) of Evansville developed the system with input from the Sheriff’s Office. Using hi-resolution night vision capable cameras, the new system can store up to two-weeks worth of video. Sheriff’s deputies are able to monitor the system from their cruisers and detectives can access archived video to investigate crimes. The homeowners association has access to the system as well and approved of all the camera locations.
Sheriff Wedding explained, “This unique system is certainly the first of its kind in Vanderburgh County. By bringing such a powerful tool to the largest neighborhood in the county, we hope to demonstrate effectiveness and then replicate this partnership at other subdivisions.”
