CINCINNATI — A new program is focused on curbing crime and improving safety in Roselawn.
Their community council is distributing free floodlight cameras to select residents on target streets dealing with crime. The council will also install signs alerting people to the cameras to deter criminal activity.
“I think it can deter especially some of those familiar people who are consistently doing illegal activity,” said Vashti Onugwu with the Roselawn Community Council.
They will fund 20 floodlight cameras this year. Onugwu is hopeful the program will expand down the line.
“This is kind of like the beta for future funding,” she said.
Roselawn’s community council surveyed the initial 20 participants ahead of installation. More than a third said they felt “very unsafe” walking at night.
The program is especially geared toward a handful of target streets and blocks, including the 1600 block of Summit Road. Jeremy Wright, 36, was shot and killed on that block last month. His friends and family are still searching for answers.
“I had my son when I was 15 and he saved my life,” said Nicole Bell, Wright’s mother. “God sent me an angel.”
She said they “grew up together.”
“It was the greatest thing in the world to actually have somebody that was just mine,” she said. “Nobody can take that from me.”
Bell said Wright was an amazing kid.
“He always thought, ‘I could just do it myself. I didn't need anybody to help me. I didn't need anybody to do anything for me,’” she said.
She said Wright leaves behind one child.
While Bell doesn’t live in Roselawn, Wright did. She thinks these cameras will be a good thing, but knows it’s up to residents to get on board.
“Let's get these cameras put up,” she said. “If the community is not coming together as a whole, it's not going to help.”
Each of the new floodlight cameras will be registered with Cincinnati police, which will allow officers a better idea of who might have captured crimes on camera.
The cameras are expected to be installed in June.
In 12 months, residents with cameras will be surveyed again to see if the cameras have made a difference.
Residents hoping to obtain a camera in a future wave of the program should get in touch with the community council.
