HOBOKEN — Two weeks after an NBC investigative report found that Hoboken’s security cameras around town haven’t worked since 2010, the City Council has voted to approve a federal Homeland Security grant to restore their operations.
The vote was held Wednesday night.
Several local towns have security cameras to aid the police in fighting crime. But Hoboken’s cameras, placed strategically around town, simply aren’t working.
The matter only came to light earlier this month after Hoboken resident Andrew Jarzyk, 27, went missing after a jog along the waterfront. Friends were able to locate security tapes of Jarzyk passing Pier C Park and Pier A, but had to obtain them from local restaurants because the city had none that were in use.
City spokesman Juan Melli said that the city did not renew a contract with the provider of the cameras after a state-appointed fiscal monitor said the contract had been bid out incorrectly. However, he did not explain why the city failed to find another way to get the cameras working quickly after they stopped.
The initial NBC report said that between 2004 and 2009, the city paid the company between $30,000 and $40,000 a year to maintain them.
“They always paid for the cameras through grants but when it came time to pay their maintenance fees, they decided to stop paying,” said the head of the camera company.
Melli said two weeks ago that the city began applying for grants to replace the cameras soon after the old contract ended. “We started applying for grants in 2010. It’s not that we haven’t made it a priority,” he said.
Now, thanks to a grant, the cameras will be restored.
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