Closed circuit cameras now monitoring 28 intersections in the Sault

A new $300,000 CCTV camera initiative is now active at 28 Sault Ste. Marie intersections to boost public safety. Cory Nordstrom has more.

Thirty closed-circuit television cameras are now operational at 28 intersections in Sault Ste. Marie.

The cameras are the result of an initiative two years in the making, made possible by equal funding of $150,000 from the province and city police.

Mayor Matthew Shoemaker said CCTV cameras have helped in all sorts of ways in communities where they are used.

“We don’t know how much it’s going to help in the Sault, but I suspect that we will be in line with how other communities have benefited from this type of system,” Shoemaker said Monday.

“That’s why, with the investment that (the police service) made and the investment that the province has made, it’s been a great expansion of resources in our community for a relatively affordable cost.”

The locations for the CCTV cameras were chosen based on data, both from crime statistics and historic calls for service.

Insp. Derek Dewar said the cameras will help in cases of missing persons.

“We have cameras, obviously, in the area of rest homes and retirement facilities,” Dewar said.

“So if we get a person – an Alzheimer patient or something like that – (who) wanders away, it can give us a direction to (search), which can focus our resources.”

Chief Brent Duguay said the CCTVs will also help with other types of investigations.

“This system will … give us a quicker starting point for some of the investigations we’re doing,” Duguay said.

If there’s a collision, for example, on Great Northern Road, the cameras will let police know what happened.

“We have cameras set up at that location,” he said.

“You’d be able to pull the video up and see who ran the red light or, you know, if there’s any other vehicles involved, that type of thing.”

A list of the camera locations can be found on the police service’s website, and each intersection with one will be marked.

Officials said they are waiting on contractors to get the next round of cameras installed, hopefully within six months.

“We have already purchased those cameras,” Duguay said.

“I think there are 15 additional cameras. Some of those cameras have multiple lenses, so you can put them in an intersection to cover ... two directions.”