DENVER — Preventing crime is a complicated task, but local businesses are trying something new using mobile surveillance cameras— while the cameras themselves are not new, the sounds they're making are.
The parking lot at The Home Depot sounds more like a concert venue. Thad Cockburn shops there frequently and said he noticed the loud music recently.
"Kind of a holiday-sounding band, orchestra style of music," Cockburn said. "It does get to a pause of lull in between the song, and then all of a sudden it blasts."
The music isn't coming from a stage. It's coming from a speaker, which sits high above the parking as part of a LiveView mobile security system. There are several of them planted throughout the Denver metro area.
"It is somewhat soothing, I guess,” Cockburn said. “I like music of all sorts."
Matt Kelley with LiveView Technologies says the music is meant to keep people from loitering in the area.
"People who hear the same looped soundtrack over and over tend to get a bit annoyed,” Kelley said. “So, they vacate the area. It's really to deter the loitering taking place in those areas."
While the mobile cameras have been in the Denver area for years, the music is a new addition for some businesses.
“They knew that they had a problem, whether it’s overnight or during the day,” Kelley said. “How do you continue to refresh the platform so that it doesn’t get stale out in the environment? That was one of those efforts that those customers took is to change up the sound of it.”
Kelley said the retailers pick the music while they help with the logistics. “We partner with them to figure out what the appropriate volume is because we don't want to have the noise carry over to the next neighborhood," he said.
Next to the speaker are surveillance cameras helping catch criminals in the act.
"This is not 'Big Brother,'” Kelley said. “This is created impression control, and it does drive down the calls for service and frees up the resources, quite honestly, of local law enforcement to do actual police work rather than respond to retail crime.”
According to Kelley, the system is working well for the businesses they serve. “We’re getting feedback from our customers that this activity is not occurring,” he said. “It’s going away. It frees up their time with their associates. It makes their customers safer.”
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