Another crime and another city camera failed to capture it. People in the neighborhood near 40th and Broadway see a sign that's telling them the area is under surveillance, but it's false advertisement.
It's supposed to provide extra eyes for West Palm Beach police officers, but one by one, city cameras are going to black.
"It's not good for the neighborhood. The camera should be working," said Maika Aziz who works at the food store at the intersection of 40th and Broadway where shooting took place Monday night.
The victim was near a bus stop when he was grazed by a bullet less than a hundred feet away from a city camera. The camera is one of several that have stopped working. The city has no plans to fix them.
"It’s not really cost effective for us to replace these cameras or fix them so what we’re doing is evaluating a new system higher resolution cameras. Things that will be a lot more effective in law enforcement," said Jeff Green, West Palm Beach City Administrator.
That could take months. Aziz has several cameras inside the food mart, but when he walks to his car at night, there's no surveillance.
"If the camera was working they would at least think twice before they do anything wrong," added Aziz.
This year at least three unsolved shootings have taken place near a non-working city camera. Even if the camera was working in this case, the city isn't confident it would have helped solve the crime.
"The cameras that we have, have limited use at this point," said Green. "If it's right on top of a crime it may be a benefit. A lot of cases it’s too far away and not set up in the right manner to actually record anything useful."
The long term fix is a high resolution system that could be remotely accessed to re-position cameras as needed. Aziz hopes the city will make the changes soon.
"You can't tell what's next, but if there's more cameras, more safety, everybody would feel more safe."
