The French Quarter Management District is asking for more money from sales tax revenue to more than triple the number of surveillance cameras in the Vieux Carre.
They want $700,000 to install 70 new cameras across the east-west lanes in Quarter to help out NOPD since the department is stuck with staffing trouble.
The cameras would be kept watch over by the City’s Real Time Crime Center.
According to the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate a grand total of 100 cameras would be keeping an eye on the Quarter.
Right now, 30 cameras watch over Bourbon Street.
The new cameras would augment what is already working on Bourbon.
The call for new cameras comes from Karley Frankic, the executive director of the District.
She says NOPD is asking for the new cameras due to staffing shortages and working with a diminished force with the fewest number of officers in decades.
In addition to the cameras, NOPD is calling for license plate readers at entrance points.
They say this will help to detect stolen cars.
Also on the wish list is more streetlights, a mobile light unit and speed radar.
Supporters of the idea to install more cameras and crime fighting technology to the Quarter says it will improve security in district.
Among those are businesses with waiters and waitresses, who have been singled out for robbery by criminals.
The full City Council will take up the issue at their September 15th meeting.
