Councillor calls for CCTV cameras on Jasmine Crescent after latest stabbing
An Ottawa city councillor wants to see if installing security cameras on Jasmine Crescent can curb violence and crime in the Gloucester neighbourhood.
Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney wrote in a news release Thursday that he and the Jasmine Safety Committee plan to ask the city's police services board to look into a pilot project for CCTV cameras on the street.
The announcement comes a day after a man was stabbed on the street in the middle of the day, the latest in a string of violent incidents including the killing of three young men in the last two years.
The most recent fatality occurred on March 8 when Nooredin Hassan, 20, was shot and killed while walking along Jasmine Crescent near Ogilvie Road. Hassan had a previous criminal record for armed robbery and theft.
The Jasmine Safety Committee has been meeting since that time to discuss such projects as an art park, community gardens and a job fair next year, Tierney wrote.
But following the latest stabbing "what has become exceedingly clear to us is that more must still be done," Tierney wrote.
The councillor acknowledges there are privacy concerns about installing CCTV cameras, but wrote that other communities including Cornwall, Ont., and Toronto are using the technology.
"There are obviously a lot of questions that will have to be answered, like who will monitor the CCTV and where exactly it will go before the cameras can go up," he wrote.
Community centre could help, councillor says
He'll also be asking the city to look into the viability of a community centre for the neighbourhood as a way of providing after-school programming for students.
Tierney reminded people in the neighbourhood that it is important to report crime if they see it, and know they can do so anonymously.
"We want to build a better Jasmine Crescent, and we will not let yesterday's stabbing deter us from the work at hand," he wrote.
