ORLANDO, Fla. — The city of Orlando has installed 176 cameras across the city to help keep residents safe. They cost a total of $4.1 million, some of that paid by taxpayers. 9 Investigates discovered the cameras don't always work.
"They should probably have the cameras that can protect us up and running all the time," Orlando resident Tara Patten said.
9 Investigates started digging deeper into problems with the nine-year-old system in August, when an Orlando police officer accidentally shot an innocent woman. The IRIS cameras that may have captured part of the chaos at Pine and Church streets had been out for nearly a month.
In August of last year, 79 cameras were not working.
"How often do the cameras go out?" Channel 9's Daralene Jones asked Orlando police Deputy Chief Robert Pigman.
"It's off and on. There are instances where certain cameras go out," Pigman said. "Things start breaking down, switches, maybe even parts of the camera."
The bigger issue is an underground fiber system that needs to be upgraded and backed up.
"There will be a series of lines the cameras are tied to, and if one fiber optic line is nicked or somehow damaged, the redundancy allows the camera to link onto another network and still have the same effect," Pigman explained.
9 Investigates got a first look at how the fiber lines intertwined with other utilities.
Sometimes the camera lines are inadvertently damaged or destroyed during repairs by companies like Orlando Utilities Commission and phone companies and even during construction projects.
A crew working on the Performing Arts Center damaged lines to nearby cameras. It took 12 days for Orlando police crews to track down the root of the outage.
"I'd feel even more safe if I knew they were up and running 24/7," Orlando resident Alyse Quinn said.
The cameras have led to 268 arrests since 2012, according to numbers provided by Orlando police.
Pigman said declines each year show criminals likely are now aware they won't get away with crime.
"Just looking at the camera, you don't know if it's working or not," Pigman said.
The Orlando Police Department is working to establish itself as a utility, which would require companies to notify the department when lines are damaged.
The cost of the system upgrades is still being negotiated as part of a series of meetings that started three weeks ago.
WFTV
