Scott Satchfield / Eyewitness News
HOUMA, La. -- Across downtown Houma, dozens of surveillance cameras are keeping a constant watch.
Restaurant owner Sam Castalano said it’s a positive for the area.
"The goal is for security, to know what's going on around your building. Obviously, if you have an investment of that sort, you want to have some protection to see what goes on," he said.
Castalano plans to install new cameras outside his restaurants soon, adding to the growing number of cameras in the downtown area.
Around 40 cameras belong to the city, officials said, and now, they’re encouraging more businesses to help.
"If (businesses) want to put up a camera on their own, we're trying to take steps where we can get access to that information and link it up with the police department where we can keep an eye on their property as well," said Sgt. Kyle Faulk with the Houma Police Department.
Faulk said a security camera outside a downtown nightclub helped solve a murder in 2007 and, a couple weeks ago, cameras helped crack a vandalism case in a downtown park.
Officials said they’re continuing to target surveillance on areas where crime has been prevalent.
"We do have some hot spots, as with any city in America, you have areas that have their issues, their trouble, their crime, their drugs, and those are the areas we're gonna focus on," he said. "The drugs spill off into higher crimes of murder and robbery and those are crimes we want to focus on as well."
Officials have paid for their own cameras mostly with federal grant money, and, while they plan to add more, they're hoping private cameras will boost their efforts.
Castalano said he believes it’s a step in the right direction.
"Once you get a couple incidents that are solved because of the cameras, then people become more aware of them, and hopefully once they become more aware of them, they have a tendency not to do the things they shouldn't be doing," Castalano said.
