More cameras on way to public housing developments

One day before Ravenswood residents and local politicians praised the presence of cameras for helping find the man who allegedly stabbed deliveryman Jian Lin Huang in the Ravenswood Houses in Astoria, the New York Police Department (NYPD) announced plans to install 23 more camera systems in public housing developments throughout the city.
&#8220These [cameras] are essential crime fighting tools. Every development needs them,” said Councilmember Peter Vallone, Jr., who chairs the Council's Public Safety Committee, where NYPD officials made the announcement on Thursday, November 2 about the additional cameras.
Following the October 23 stabbing of Huang, the police released images of a man now believed to be David Moore, 22, walking down the steps in the development and carrying a bloody knife. Moore turned himself into the police after the images were shown in the media, and he now faces 25 years behind bars.
&#8220This man was caught because of cameras,” Vallone said at a press conference.
Vallone has also recently introduced a resolution to the Council, calling on the federal government to provide funding for more video security systems at city housing developments.
At Ravenswood, a Video Interactive Patrolled Enhanced Response (VIPER) camera system was installed in 1999 for more than $17 million from money raised by the Ravenswood Tenants' Association's Modernization Committee and Councilmember Eric Gioia. A VIPER system is also in place at the Astoria Houses development.
&#8220Between 1997 and 2002, VIPER systems were used,” said Howard Marder, a spokesperson for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), explaining that NYCHA switched to small scale Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) systems, which cost up to three times less and record video so live officers need not constantly watch the footage.
Over the next 18 months, camera systems - all CCTV systems - will be installed at developments in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island. The majority of public housing developments in Queens already have camera systems, Marder said.
Recently, a $3 million CCTV camera surveillance system, which records video to be reviewed after a crime is reported, was installed at the Queensbridge Houses, one of the three northwest Queens housing developments holding more than 30,000 residents in total.
Carol Wilkins, president of the Ravenswood Tenants' Association, pointed to the cameras as an investigative tool as well as a crime deterrent.
Wilkins said that Huang, who delivered Chinese food for Sam Lee Kitchen on 36th Avenue, had been a fixture in the community.
&#8220I'm very sorry that this happened to your husband,” Wilkins told Huang's wife, LiXue Chen.
LiXue Chen told reporters through a translator that her husband had been recently readmitted to the hospital for severe chest pains. In addition to praising the development's camera system, LiXue Chen thanked Ravenswood resident Louise Curtis, who stayed with Huang after he was stabbed and waited for an ambulance to arrive.