Scott Satchfield / Eyewitness News
NEW ORLEANS -- It's a simple idea: use a series of cameras to capture enough visual evidence to help investigators identify a suspect after a crime takes place.
It's something the city has already tried without much success, but what if an independent group steps in to help? It's a question we asked folks on Bourbon Street.
"As long as it's not overdone, you know, but, yeah, I think it would be good,” said one person interviewed.
"You know, if it works to help prevent crime, why not do it?" said another person interviewed.
Bryan Lagarde is doing it. He heads up the non-profit Project NOLA, a group that aims to keep people informed about crime across the city.
Now, he's taking that a step further, by helping inform New Orleans police.
"We'll be able to instantly send footage or snapshots to the NOPD as they need them,” Lagarde said.
Project NOLA is in the process of installing a dozen cameras at businesses who agree to help, like this one at the corner of Conti and Burgundy.
"Mainly in the French Quarter to start off with, some parts of the Marigny, and some parts of New Orleans East,” Lagarde said. “Whenever we capture a perpetrator who's either on his way to a crime or fleeing from a crime, it will help identify him."
Footage from the high-definition cameras will be recorded on site and can also be accessed remotely by select Project NOLA administrators.
Lagarde sells surveillance systems for a living and says a private camera he installed on Bourbon Street helped investigators arrest a suspect accused in the beating death of a Gretna police officer last summer.
That helped spark this new effort -- one Lagarde believes could make an impact in many neighborhoods.
"The communities are working with us. They contact us. They're interested in putting crime cameras up,” he said.
Lagarde says his company is funding the first round of cameras, but he's looking for alternative financial sources to expand the program.
Again, some folks we talked with raised some legal concerns about the presence of too much surveillance, but most agreed, the cameras could be helpful.
For more information, head to http://www.projectnola.com
