Surveillance cameras helping keep downtown Fayetteville safe

Ten closed-circuit cameras have already been installed in downtown Fayetteville to help direct officers to crimes in progress and to provide other useful information that could help investigators solve crimes or identify suspects or missing persons.

Officers control the cameras remotely from the Durham Police Department, and video is stores on the devices for 10 days before being overwritten.

Five of the cameras were donated by the Fayetteville Downtown Alliance, and five others were purchased with money from a $102,000 federal grant.

Chief Harold Medlock said the video is never made public unless it is needed to help solve a case.

He says the system has already proven useful in large crowds, including the Dogwood Festival in April when three cameras installed at Festival Park help officers break up a fight involving teenagers.

"Cameras were able to get right in there, identify the exact location, the descriptions of the young people, Medlock said. "We got in, broke it up and sent everyone on their way."

Medlock says the cameras won't stop or solve every crime, but that the surveillance system is just one more tool his department is using to help keep citizens safe.