Area of Saginaw gets surveillance cameras

SAGINAW (AP) — Police in Saginaw are working with local business owners to install nearly a dozen surveillance cameras in the city’s Old Town district.

Saginaw police Chief Robert Ruth told The Saginaw News he hopes the cameras will discourage criminal activity and provide a sense of security to visitors.

“Really, it’s a preventative measure,” Ruth said. “We want people to know they can come down here and they’re safe. We want people to know they’re there. We want people to know we’re watching.”

The idea to move police cameras into Old Town stemmed from a series of 2014 sexual assaults, Ruth said. A suspect is awaiting trial in the case.

The police department in 2012 unveiled a network of more than 50 cameras throughout Saginaw called the Regional Analysis of Police Technology, Operations and Reporting system, or RAPTOR. The city’s
shrinking residential core, however, has reduced the usefulness of some of the cameras.