Crime-fighting initiative involving cameras at businesses announced

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - More anti-crime cameras to come to the Baton Rouge region, helping businesses and neighborhoods feel safer.

Two families will be without loved ones come this holiday season. 3-year-old Devin Page Jr. and LSU Student Allison Rice, both are victims to gun violence, and still today investigators have not found those who did it.

“One of the major disappointments with our investigation at this point has been the lack of footage. You know for all of these businesses and being in the technological age that we’re in, it really kind of confuses me that they are not trying to protect their businesses,” says Paul Rice who lost his daughter Allison on Government Street due to a random shooting.

It’s why law enforcement and the Baton Rouge Area Chamber want to get more cameras up, that way investigators can have that evidence to solve cases and hopefully prevent future crimes.

“People who are out there watching this, understand, that if you are in a tough area, a high crime area, you are not by yourself,” explains Clay Young.

In memory of Devin Page and Allison Rice, they’re calling it the Page Rice Camera Initiative, installing cameras in certain areas in Baton Rouge for businesses and neighborhood, at no cost to them.

“This is another step in getting involved and we are going to continue to work hard with our business community, with our community to continue to identify these individuals,” says Chief Murphy Paul with the Baton Rouge Police Department.

The goal is to install 26 cameras in the areas most impacted by crime, those areas were picked by law enforcement based on data. Those cameras will be linked to law enforcement such as The Real Time Crime Center at BRPD and The Crime Information Center at the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office.

Benny’s Car Wash on Perkins was one of the recipients for the cameras.

“Well, we’ve had cameras for years, we have over 50 cameras at this location alone, but the big piece is that it ties into the sheriff and the city police. So, they have real time access to it. So, before if they ever had an incident, it was a delay, they call us in 24 hours, we’d get back to them,” describes Justin Alford who is the owner of Benny’s Car Wash.

So far, several businesses and some on Government Street have reached out to law enforcement about getting cameras. The Rice and Page families hope that more will follow.

For those who wish to get a camera, they must submit a request, the location must be in one of the areas picked out by law enforcement.

There are other options, folks can purchase their own camera, adopt a camera which will fund a camera in a home, or a business, or they can donate to the cause to get more cameras up around the city.

If you are interested in learning more, you can go to: www.brcollab.com/pagerice.

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