Chief Parker presents community camera system (Project NOLA); Delgado calls it ‘Big Brother on steroids’

A community-based camera sentry system designed to see crimes occur in real-time and help apprehend those criminals brought stern warnings from Hattiesburg Ward 2 Councilwoman Deborah Delgado during a City Council work session Monday at City Hall.

Delgado told Police Chief Anthony Parker, who made the presentation, the voluntary surveillance system is like “Big Brother on steroids.”

Parker said the system allows the placement of cameras on homes and businesses as a crime deterrent. The cameras would point out toward the streets, displaying in real-time and recording any activity.

“The Natchez police chief highly recommended this camera program to me,” Parker said. “He was very complimentary of the results of using this camera system.”

Parker said the Natchez Police Department partnered with the community in 2018 to place NOLA crime cameras to help detectives solve murders and disrupt the drug trafficking.

“By 2019, Natchez had credited Project NOLA for the citywide 92 percent reduction in homicides,” he said. “In 2018, Project NOLA located 25,000 high-definition crime cameras and reduced the city’s murder rate to a level unseen since 1971.”

However, Delgado said she worried about how the camera system would be used.

“I am just concerned about the abuses that may occur with such a system,” she said. “My concern is looking at crime statistics and usually what goes on in communities – particularly when I look at the fact that we have 52 percent African American population, and when I look at the jail, more than 90 percent of inmates are African American.”

Delgado said she sees the proposal as adding to abuses.

“Are we going to be surveilled all the time? That’s critical to me as a person living in a free and open society,” she said. “It’s my every move; it’s my family’s every move to be monitored and surveilled and stored somewhere.”

The councilwoman said she was concerned about the level of oversight.

“It concerns me the level of surveillance of the citizens of Hattiesburg is going to be something like living in a police state,” she said. “This is Big Brother on steroids. I do understand places like high crime rates like New Orleans or other large urban areas with over the moon crime rates. But, I’m concerned that Hattiesburg doesn’t have the same reputation. Hattiesburg is a safe place to live in the scheme of things.”

Parker emphasized that communities would have to buy into the system.

“I don’t look at race,” he said to Delgado. “I look at crime; this is a community-based program. It would only be used for law enforcement.”

Ward 1 Councilman Jeffrey George said a neighbor had the doorbell camera to reduce crime in the area.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” he said. “I think it will help the Police Department. I see no issue with it.”

Ward 5 Councilman Nicholas Brown, who was attending by telephone, said he had talked with company representatives before the meeting.

“I think it is good, and it is trying to protect the community,” he said. “But, I also understand where Mrs. Delgado is. I hope we can get on the same page.”

Ward 4 Councilwoman Mary Dryden said the camera system could be used in other ways.

“I believe it might also exonerate a person who had been charged with a crime,” she said.