Middletown Police to Double Street Cameras With State Grant

Lieutenant Jeffry Thoelen looks at live street camera monitors in the operation room at Middletown Police Department in Middletown, New York on Sept. 9, 2022. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

The Middletown Police Department will install 29 new street cameras by use of a handsome public safety grant recently approved by the state legislature.

In the next six to 12 months, new cameras will be installed at busy intersections and high-value locations where the city has made large investments, such as Erie Way Park and Rail Trail Commons, according to Middletown Police Department Lieutenant Jeffry Thoelen.

Now there are 23 street cameras in the city, mostly covering downtown and busy intersections such as Wickham Avenue and North Street. The city also has three cameras on the campus of Orange County Community College that were paid for by a years-old previous grant.

“Hopefully, people will be aware that surveillance coverage is there, and that will deter them from committing crimes. But if they do, unfortunately, commit a crime, the cameras will make it a lot easier to investigate because they get us suspect or vehicle descriptions,” Thoelen told The Epoch Times.

Once there was a robbery at the Kennedy Fried Chicken, located at the intersection of Wickham and North. Afterward, officers were able to get the footage of robbers coming out of the store from the camera right across the street, he said.

Old footage will typically be stored for about a month before they are overwritten by new recordings.

Street cameras also help officers better respond to ongoing incidents, Thoelen said.

Though the department doesn’t have people monitor the camera feed all the time, when a particular tip or complaint comes in, operation room officers can turn to monitors and feed responding officers with real-time information.

Part of the grant will also be used to upgrade monitors to display clearer videos, he said.

The cameras offer 360-degree views, with functions to tilt, pan, and zoom.

In July, the city saw a drop–the first time this year–in Part One crimes, at 50 in total, according to the latest publicly available police commission meeting video.

Part One crimes include murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglaries, and theft.

Meanwhile, in July, the number of service calls continued to rise to 3,280. Police Chief John Ewanciw expects the number to go down in fall and pick up again during the holiday season, according to the above meeting.

Middletown police received $450,000 in total to upgrade its public camera system, which is part of a $1 million public safety and education grant given to the city of Middletown and the town of Wallkill with the approval of the state legislature.

The Middletown School District received $50,000 for a proposed community center where students and families can participate in programs and activities off campus.