An Idea for Lynchburg: ICAM

Tired of crime in your neighborhoods. Tired of seeing the crack dealer on the corner. Are you a little nervous when you are in some areas of Lynchburg? Do you look over your shoulder, concerned about the people around you? You are not alone, in stories often printed in the local news media, you start hearing a growing chorus of people saying these exact things.

I would like to show you something. Something that other cities are using and something I think would work in high crime areas in Lynchburg. It is a viewer operated web cam. Now, what do I mean viewer operated. It is a cam that you can pan, zoom and focus. When you visit the site, you will get an opportunity to control the cam. The advantages of this is that the police do not have to operate the cam.

If Lynchburg had such a system, I am sure the community would step forward to take the controls, and you would see not only a deterrent to crime, but crimes solved.

Now, I am not suggesting that Lynchburg go out and buy this system. I think that the city could get it at no cost. You see, Lynchburg holds the cards on a very important city service. They could make it a requirement for Comcast to provide the service, when they finish buying Adelphia.

Now before you think this is a farfetched proposal, Time Warner cable service operates this cam system in another city as a service to the community. So perhaps, with some shrew negotiating, Lynchburg could have its own system. Take a look, and have some fun. It may take some practice to get use to it but I am sure you will have fun trying. I CAM


(Local police, law and crime) (City Council and local issues)