March 2019 Newsletter
This will be my first newsletter since being chosen as President of CAPE by my fellow Board members in February. Kelley Stein has resigned as president due to pressing family considerations. I have lived in Pollard Estates since 2006, purchasing my father’s house after he moved to a nursing home. I moved here from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, following Hurricane Katrina, although I was born and raised in Baton Rouge.
The city has grown tremendously over the years, and with the increase in population also comes an increase in crime. Burglaries, car vandalism, and general pilfering of visible items in Pollard Estates have become an increasing problem that will only multiply with the opening of the Rouzan entrances to Woodchase. We are fortunate in Pollard to have only two entrances (three counting the connection to Woodchase). In the resident survey conducted last year, security was voiced as a major concern. Your CAPE Board, in conjunction with the Woodchase Board and Rouzan, has come up with a way to increase security at a nominal cost. The City of Baton Rouge and the Baton Rouge Police Department are encouraging the installation of license plate reader cameras at neighborhood entrances to assist the Police Department in monitoring for illegal activity. Rouzan, Woodchase, and Pollard Estates would be connected to a system of high-definition cameras installed at all entrances. All three developments have agreed to share the costs of the system.
The camera installations would be paid for by the neighborhoods. The cameras would be directly linked in real-time to the police computer system at headquarters. License plates would be scanned in their system to search for known perpetrators, stolen vehicles or plates, or suspicious vehicles. Many burglars use stolen cars to commit their crimes to avoid being tracked. When a suspicious vehicle is logged by the cameras, police can be immediately dispatched to the area before a crime is committed. If a crime is committed, then the cameras can be used to identify possible suspects for police to solve the crime.
The two main entrances to Pollard Estates, Perkins Road and Quail Avenue, would have cameras installed. Because these entrances also serve Woodchase, Pollard would only be required to pay for one camera, Woodchase would cover the second camera. Rouzan has also agreed to install cameras throughout their development. The cost for the cameras has yet to be determined since several systems are being evaluated for compatibility by the city. A one-time assessment will likely be necessary to install the camera in Pollard, but the cost per individual resident should be fairly low. The cameras would function in addition to and complement our regular off-duty police patrols currently in effect.
Steve Oivanki, President