Norfolk Parking Garages Getting Surveillance Cameras

What starts as an informative piece on downtown Norfolk’s garages getting cameras ends up a story that simply prompts more questions. The first two paragraphs explain where the cameras will go and how residents and tourists are happy with them.

We then learn neighborhoods have installed cameras over the last year to see if they help deter crime, but get no answers or statistics as to whether the plan has worked. We don’t even get a quote from either side—a police officer or resident of one of the neighborhoods with cameras.

Then we learn no one will actually be monitoring the cameras. Instead, the information they capture will be stored for 30 days and then deleted. We don’t learn what kind of action warrants viewing the stored information. We don’t learn why the 30 day limit exists—why not 6 months or yearly? Too expensive? We don’t know.

I’m happy residents are happy. I’m unsure what good will be done if the main crime in the garages is breaking into cars and no one is actually monitoring the video as it happens. Again, the article doesn’t mention the quality of the camera, so no idea if the criminals will be grey and grainy or actually identifiable and prosecutable.

Lunch Counter Sit-Ins: 30 Years Later

I love when the Pilot gives us local history. This was a great story on how our region’s African-American college students played an active role in integration in the 1960s, even garnering the attention of Time magazine. It was great to hear the sense of purpose and camaraderie felt by the people who were there fighting for equality—especially great to hear how many of them became successful in the years that followed.

I read the story online and one thing I missed was pictures. If the physical paper had pictures, then I apologize. Then and now shots perhaps? Storefronts of any of the diners or lunch counters mentioned? Are any of them even still around?

Bill aims to limit where sex offenders can live

Del. Clay Athey of Front Royal wants to pass a bill restricting where convicted sex offenders live. “If enacted, HB 1004 would bar individuals ordered to register as sex offenders for crimes involving a juvenile victim from living within 500 feet of multiple places children are known to frequent.”

Also, it would add more examples to the list of those “places.” I did not realize until reading this that private schools are not treated the same as public schools under current law. As it stands now, public schools and daycare centers are considered child-zones and sex offenders can’t go near them. However, private schools, school bus stops, playgrounds and more are not recognized under the current law.

The article does a great job of showing both sides of a really tough argument. Everyone wants to protect children. The tricky part is trying to determine what’s constitutional in a situation where the criminal has completed his or her sentence and is now free again.

Mary Devoy of Reform Sex Offender Laws of Virginia says this bill could lead to more homeless sex offenders. What happens then is these people who are told to register where they live now have no where to live, and aren’t allowed to be within 500 feet of school bus stops or parks, and eventually run out of places to go?

The issues and questions this raises are much larger than something one newspaper article can cover properly, but kudos to the Pilot for getting the debate started.

Frontier Airlines announces introductory fares to Denver

This is just a blurb really—but great news! More reasonably priced, nonstop tickets to the West are exactly the kind of thing this area needs. Not only for ourselves, but also when encouraging travel to the 757.

As often happens with Pilot articles online, the comments are as interesting as the stories themselves and I encourage everyone to read them.