Adrian City Commission fields proposal for installing security cameras at four parks

Brad Heineman, The Daily Telegram
·4 min read

ADRIAN — With the spring season a little more than one month away and improving weather conditions on the horizon, the Adrian City Commission started to field topics of discussion Monday at its premeeting work study session related to Adrian’s system of parks.

One of those discussion topics came from Adrian’s Parks and Recreation Director Jeremiah Davies and Adrian’s information technology Director Gordon McKinney about installing a total of 32 security cameras at four of Adrian’s most attended parks and having those cameras online and ready to go this year.

The cameras proposed for installation would be placed at various points throughout Comstock, Island, Riverside and Trestle parks. These parks were selected, Davies explained, because of the number of vandalism and crime occurrences that have been reported during past years.

Adrian's Trestle Park, 302 Hunt St., features raised boardwalks through natural areas near the River Raisin and is also a stop along the Kiwanis Trail. Pictured, is the park's Hunt Street Station, one of its many boardwalks. Trestle Park is home to many of Adrian’s extensive trails, walking paths, picnic shelters, a ball field and an outdoor amphitheater.

The system Adrian’s commission was presented for review at Monday’s meeting costs $88,000 for 10 years, which covers the use of the cameras and all required licensing. The cameras are under a warranty for the 10-year price, McKinney said, where if something breaks, it will be replaced within the 10 years.

With internet connection costs at about $90 per month, having been quoted through Adrian’s internet provider D&P Communications, the city said it is looking to make the parks safer, cleaner and more inviting to its visitors by having the cameras installed and going online with all needed software.

In his two years as parks and recreation director, at least $8,000-$10,000 in unexpected repairs made to Adrian’s parks because of vandalism have tallied up, Davies said. Even before his time as director, he said, the city dealt with crime and vandalism within the parks.

The Parks and Forestry Department is responsible for maintaining Adrian’s 18 parks, totaling about 625 acres.

“We want people back in the city of Adrian parks and I believe we have made a ton of progress over the last two years that I have been here, and I credit our staff entirely for that,” Davies said. “... First and foremost, it's a public safety issue,” he said regarding the request for installing cameras.

Security cameras are in place at larger parks in cities like Toledo, Davies referenced, to protect citizens and everyday parkgoers.

Jeremiah Davies
Jeremiah Davies

“We also want it to be a deterrent,” he added. “Our bathrooms are constantly destroyed.”

Having the cameras installed and signage posted throughout the parks informing guests there is video surveillance might help deter some of the instances of vandalism or inappropriate behavior at the parks.

The decision to investigate the potential solution originated during discussions last summer between Davies, Adrian Police Chief Vince Emrick and City Administrator Greg Elliott.

Adrian police were called out to several of the park’s trails “almost every day” last year, Emrick said.

“If we scale back the (police) manpower and add the cameras it maybe will be more of a complete solution and a cost effective (solution),” Emrick said.

The cameras and the accompanying software will allow the city to link all the cameras together providing a live video feed at each location. Motion detected by the cameras is recorded and stored for up to 30 days on the camera itself, and then it can be stored in the cloud.

There isn't much action happening during the winter months at Island Park's playground in Adrian, but when the weather is warmer, the playground can be a great place for kids to remain active and have fun. Island Park is at the end of North Broad Street. Picnic shelters can be rented and the park also offers several baseball fields and scenic views.

Cameras will be able to identify vehicles, McKinney said, and there is a search option on the software to identify images associated by searching a keyword. In an example McKinney provided to the commission, he said the software would be able to show every image from the cameras that captured someone wearing a backpack while in the parks, for example.

“The intent here is that we can track; if we have a person of interest that we think has caused some damage at some point and we catch them on video doing something, we can look through all of our cameras and see where that person was at any point in time,” McKinney said. “We can get an idea of where they went or what they were doing and maybe get a visual for the police department to use to track people down.”

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“Hot spots” is what Davies called the locations in which the cameras would be placed, because of the amount of activity reported there.

Since Monday was an introduction for the commission to the security camera proposal, no action was taken. Several of the commissioners expressed their interest in moving forward and purchasing the cameras and software.

"We owe that to our citizens," commissioner Gordon Gauss said. "They are paying for the parks. For them not to be able to use them is just not right. We need to do whatever necessary to make sure our community can use the parks."

— Contact reporter Brad Heineman at bheineman@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: twitter.com/LenaweeHeineman.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Adrian commission hears proposal for installing security cameras at parks