The town of Summerville approved installing 12 surveillance cameras to Hutchinson Square, project funded by the hospitality tax

Summerville, South Carolina – Twelve surveillance cameras are expected to be installed in the upcoming period to Hutchinson Square in Summerville, the town of Summerville officials confirm.

According to their last week’s decision, the project will be paid for through the hospitality tax.

“We have had some trouble in the Square over the past several years and we have had to call the police quite a bit,” said Frances Hanebrink, the owner of Hanebrink Jewelers.

The decision came after a loitering was reported numerous times in the last couple of months, despite the fact that no increase in number of incidents is seen and the square remains a safe place for everyone.

“We have had some customers that were very uncomfortable with some of the things going on at the square. Especially in the evenings around here,” she said.

Hanebrink’s store is located in the center of the square, an area that is usually crowded and people are passing through all the time making the center of the square safe place. But Hanebrink says that is not the case with other stores located outside of the center of the square as there is not that much foot traffic in those areas.

“As you get down some of these side streets, that is where I think people are even a little more nervous,” said Hanebrink.

According to the Summerville town council decision, the 12 cameras that should be installed soon will be controlled by the Summerville Police Department and their dispatch center can access live stream 24 hours a day.

“Everything is going to be recorded at our dispatch center but our dispatch center will also be able to look at it live. Not that it is monitored 24/7 but if they are looking and they see something then we can easily be dispatched,” said Lt. Chris Hirsch, Summerville Police Department.

Summerville Police Department officials said they are effortlessly working in the last couple of years combating violent crime in the city and they believe these cameras will surely help them a lot to achieve lower violent crime rates.

“Summerville as we know is growing, and it’s growing at a tremendous rate. We are trying to get to the forefront and provide the extra security since crime is going up,” said Lt. Hirsch.

Recently, the local police department went step further in additionally combating the crime within the city with creating the “team 6”, a team composed of several officers who will patrol the business district, parks and bike trails.

“I do think that having more police presence down here will make them feel a lot better, especially as it gets darker now earlier in the evenings,” said Hanebrink.

The cameras project is expected to be finished by the end of the year.