The Mobile Police Department has not made any arrests in connection to a shootout last week at Langan Park, and now the focus has shifted to issues with cameras in the park.
Investigators found that students from at least three local high schools were in the park when the shooting happened. Miraculously, no one was shot. However, the shooting has caused members of the public to come forward with concerns.
“I think one of the reasons that we’ve heard so much from people is that this happened at a park where a lot of children were playing, and parents were out there,” said Councilwoman Gina Gregory. “And again, it’s groups of juveniles who decided for whatever reason it was okay to start shooting at each other.”
There are cameras in the park, but public safety director Rob Lasky said there are several reasons footage is likely not usable for the investigation.
The Parks and Recreation Department owns the cameras, so they are not placed in a position to capture evidence, such as people and license plates. Also, the cameras are operable but do not store data on the city’s camera network due to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which prohibits government use of cameras made in China.
Any agency that uses Chinese-manufactured equipment can lose federal funding.
After being questioned about why video from the park had not been released, Lasky said that over the past year, the City has been working to update its camera system.
The City owns 1,500 cameras, 400 belonging to the Mobile Police Department. However, Lasky said the department is in talks about taking over cameras from other departments, including some of the Parks and Recreation Department’s 300 cameras. He said that way, police could position the cameras for public safety purposes.
The MIT department is working to consolidate eight different operating systems, but Lasky said it takes more time and money than people may think.
“It’s not as easy as you think because as you acquire cameras, through bidding systems and through different departments, to unify the system, you may think, ‘Oh, we just plug it in the same way,” Lasky explained. “But there’s a lot more technically involved than just plugging them all into the same recorder, the same system and it’s got to be done strategically.”
The investigation into the shooting is ongoing, and detectives are still conducting interviews with school officials and people in the area.
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