My good neighbors around the corner have a descent surveillance camera security system based on a hard drive DVR. They have caught a few crimes including a home robbery that took place Nov. 21, 2011. I was able to pull the footage and retreive still shots from the system from the last two house break-ins on our street. Their security system has put thieves in jail and has resulted in property being recovered. Problem is, their cameras are for their house and were only meant to cover a limited area. If a crime is comitted outside of camera view, or the criminals don't pass in front of the camera, that's too bad.

What I think we should do is have community cameras on some of the light poles facing the streets. It won't be facing anyone's house so privacy shouldn't be a concern. Everyone can have a basic user name and password so that anyone can view the cameras at any time, from work or home. What do y'all think of this? If a crime is comitted, we could all at least see who was in the area at the time and that would help out a lot during an investigation. Also, a sign could be posted in strategic areas stating that cameras are watching the neighborhood 24/7 so that may deter a good amount of crime. (We could replace the neighborhood watch signs with ones more specific about the surveillance cameras.)

Post what you think in response. If we get enough people interested, we might be able to have a large chunk of the cost paid by the HOA and very little charge (if any) to the rest of us. I think it would be great.