In what has to be a first of its kind, Richmond police have managed to catch a local ring of bike thieves. Local NBC 12 has more details:
VCU Police stop a bike theft ring in its tracks! Five men and one juvenile were arrested after investigators say, they went methodically around campus stealing bikes to sell them.
18-year-old Roye Love; 18-year-old Marcus Ramseur; 18-year-old Anthony Stewart; 19-year-old Denzell Terry; 19-year-old Kevin Braswell and a juvenile male all face charges of grand larceny, conspiracy to steal bicycles and possession of burglary tools.
VCU police say, the group stole two bicycles October 29. Officers were able to arrest the suspects within days, in part because of VCU's new million-dollar camera system.
While I do love the idea of bike thieves getting brought to justice, the last part of that post is kind of terrifying. I'm curious to see what exactly went into VCU's "million-dollar camera system."
It's not like such a security system isn't warranted, a number of violent crimes have occurred on or near the RVA behemoth in the last year:
8/23/12 - VCU Campus Assault and Robbery: Mob Attacks 2 People
11/23/12 - Man robbed at gunpoint on VCU's main academic campus
9/24/13 Armed robbery reported at VCU's main campus
10/3/13 - Fatal shooting near VCU campus
Does all this crime warrant an expanded surveillance system? Probably. But I'd like to find out what else these cameras are catching and to what extent the footage is being used. Calling VCU "Big Brother" is certainly not a stretch, and admittedly the campus has done some good for the surrounding area. (depending on who you ask.)
Maybe we should look into exactly what VCU is looking at and what they are looking for.