By Carol P. Bartold     

Aug. 24, 2016:  Thirty security cameras to be installed at all village entrances, as well as throughout the downtown business district, will not only help the Bronxville Police Department perform criminal investigations, they will also serve as a deterrent to crime.

"No doubt about it," said Lt. Richard Bunyan of the Bronxville Police Department. "Clearly, if a criminal is surveilling the area for an easy target and sees a camera, he or she will move on to a different place."

The Bronxville Board of Trustees approved the $300,000 investment in the cameras as part of the village's 2016-2017 capital plan.

According to Lt. Bunyan, eight cameras are functional and, within the next two to three weeks, approximately ten more cameras should be operational.

Lt. Bunyan stated that the cameras will be used for security and criminal investigations. The department has no plans to use them to identify traffic violations or use them as "red light" cameras.

"Every time a crime is committed in the village," he said, "the first thing we look for is video, whether it's from private citizens or cameras in the area of the crime." He noted that the installed cameras have already helped in investigations and that the recordings can be used as evidence in court.

Video recordings are the major component of any criminal investigation, according to Lt. Bunyan. The recordings facilitate cooperation among police departments, he said. If the Bronxville Police Department finds a suspect known to be involved in a crime, the department can examine video recordings from neighboring departments, from where the suspect resides, and from where a vehicle is registered. He said he expects neighboring departments will request to examine Bronxville's recordings as well.

The department will keep the security camera recordings on hand and will examine them as needed. The cameras can be controlled from police headquarters, and officers will have the ability to monitor live activity. There will not, however, be someone assigned to observe the cameras or recordings on a round-the-clock basis.

"We looked at other municipalities to see what they have done," said Lt. Bunyan. "We literally cherry-picked their best software concepts." He added that they enlisted the help of other police departments as well as Julie Cagliostro, the village's manager of information systems, who was "instrumental in getting the project up and running."