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As city centers became more crowded, so did crime become more common. In dealing with rising crime rates in its region, the Orlando City Police came up with the IRIS program (Innovative Response to Improve Safety), which spread about 200 recording cameras operating on motion sensors, most of them located in the center of the city. The program first started in 2007 when a private grant the sum of $70,000 made possible the stationing of 19 cameras in the city center, after which the Federal Emergency Management Agency stationed more cameras, preparing the ground for the 200 cameras stationed today.
Thanks to the cameras, civil security is better as there’s a smaller chance of a crime commited intentionally when the criminal knows there’s a camera watching his every move. Another improvement is in the Security Forces management of events, as now an an officer in the scene can have a direct dialogue with the Security Forces officer in the control room. However, there are occasional malfunctions that damage the system from functioning perfectly. Such a malfunction occured in July of last year when a man tried to escape arrest while attempting to run over the police officers who tried to arrest him. Unfortunately for the Orlando Law Enforcement agencies, the cameras failed to record the event, which made difficult the attemp to convict him in court, as there was no footage. A month later another malfunction occured and a later exchange between the police force and the company in charge of the cameras’ system maintenance showed that in the time between the two events, 30 of the cameras spread around the city didn’t work. The reason for this was damage to an optic fibre which was detached during construction work in the city, which prevented electricity from reaching its destination.
When man relies on technological means, it seems inevitable that mishaps will occur, preventing the system from functioning properly, but despite all this the city of Orland and its police force plan on increasing the use of the city surveillance cameras, which serve as extra watching eyes when a policeman can’t be placed in every corner of the city.
