Over two weeks have passed since the last [reported] theft inside the parking garage at Westbard Square in Bethesda, and we have yet to see any surveillance camera video or still images from that incident or any other. Property owner Regency Centers announced early this summer that it would be installing cameras in the garage, and that Montgomery County police would have direct access to the footage. So, one has to wonder...where is it? What is the point of having cameras if they are not utilized to deter crime? As Warner Wolf used to say, "Let's go to the videotape!"
My guess, neighborhood minors that defy descption per PC standards.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, if it's been two weeks since any crimes have occurred there, the cameras are playing a role? Or, who knows --perhaps no CCTV has yet been installed. But absence of [publicly shared CCTV footage] evidence is not evidence of [surveillance] absence.
ReplyDelete6:10: Lack of shared footage is evidence of failure to prosecute crime, as at least one crime has occurred, and no images have been released for the public to assist in identifying the suspect(s).
DeleteWho says the police doesn’t have access to the video?
ReplyDelete6:39: Nobody said they don't.
Deleteprobably not installed or tryna ignore to lose news/crime inquiry dig more downtown Bethesda has lots of homeless rockville pike needs to build more roads
ReplyDeleteNo cameras have been put up. No license plate readers either. Both mentioned by developer to help secure garage.
ReplyDelete12:00: If true, that would be highly controversial, as the property owner and MCPD have publicly claimed these actions to assure the community.
DeleteDowntown Bethesda has a growing population of "homeless" getting high in our public spaces.
ReplyDeleteNot really homeless since they go to some facility at night but they have plenty of time on their hands for mischief. And they were here before the homeless clean up in DC.
Robert @ 6:10, would you elaborate on how images/footage not being made public is evidence of a failure to prosecute crime, please? I'm prepared to believe this might be the case, but the statement itself, without any supporting evidentiary argument, fails to convince. HAs it been confirmed that pix are released from other cameras every time there is a crime captured on CCTV?
ReplyDeleteAs analogy, MCPD no longer allows the public to hear police communications. Much though I hate now being unable to listen to a scanner and know what's going on in my community, I don't take the silenced radio monitor to mean county police have stopped dispatching calls or catching crooks; they just aren't letting the public in on what they're doing. At least, I hope that's the case.
7:29: I think it's fairly cut and dry - a crime was committed in the garage on September 1. The community has been quite vocal in their concern over the recent significant increase in crime on Westbard Avenue, making this a high-profile case. In this context, one of two things would have happened in the days since: the police would have announced an arrest, and ID who was accused. Or they would have released images to assist in the capture of those responsible.
DeleteNeither has happened, to my knowledge. So they (theoretically) don't know who did it, and they aren't engaging the public to find out who did. That sounds like a failure to prosecute crime to me.
Exactly, I went to the Connie Morella library today around 4:05pm and there were MoCo popo all over the place, at least six patrol cars on Old G-town road and in the entrance. I walked up to press the button to open the doors and they had a white male disheveled in handcuffs right in front of the library. But because they encrypt everything now, I don't know anything about what happened. At least we can listen to the fire/rescue squad dispatches on the scanner.
DeleteI appreciate your sense of community, Robert, but a car's --a single car, judging from your 3 September report of the incident-- being broken into is not a "high-profile case." For the vehicle owner, I'm sure it seems so, but in the hierarchy of crime, police triage property crime, as is the case here, lower than they do crimes against persons. That doesn't mean the police are ignoring the crime, necessarily, but there isn't a law enforcement agency in the country, the world, where a smashed car window and stolen items will be treated as an all-hands-on-deck, alert-the-media "red ball," nor should they. Imagine the victims of any such violent attacks learning the police can't handle their cases faster because resources are devoted to finding the guy who stole a purse from an unattended SUV. Trying to claim a broken-into car is or should be as "high-profile" a case as an armed carjacking, a rape, an armed robbery, or the like is unrealistic; it is the stuff of cranks, and you are better than that.
ReplyDelete8:53: It's not the individual crime that makes it high-profile, but the context of the Westbard crime wave. It would make perfect sense for MCPD to perp walk an arrest, or release images - both from a cynical, political standpoint, and from a sincere, community-minded standpoint - to show action is now being taken on the Westbard crime spike. MCPD and Regency Centers made this promise publicly in June.
DeleteLove me some Warner Wolf!
ReplyDeleteRobert- I agree it would be good for something to be released. I guess reading above, have you happened to make a direct request to police (or county POC) regarding information on this event?
ReplyDelete