Cops: Fla. slaying suspects didn't expect cameras

Melanie and Byrd Billings, known for adopting a large brood of children with special needs, were shot to death about a week ago. An extensive surveillance system captured footage of masked men — some dressed as ninjas — slipping into front and back doors at the home and stealing a safe, among other items.

The men were in the nine-bedroom house for just four minutes and on the property for 10, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said. Video captured during that time led investigators to a red van used as a getaway car and eventually to the suspects.

Morgan said investigators have been pondering "the huge gap" in what was otherwise a precise, methodical crime for which the suspects had trained 30 days. They were a loosely connected group of mostly day laborers who knew each other through a power washing business and an auto detailing operation.

"The execution was basically flawless," Morgan said. "The one gaping hole that would not have made this a perfect operation, if you will, was the fact that the surveillance system was not disabled. I guess the question was why was it not?"

Cameras played a pivotal role in the apprehension efforts.  The private cameras had enough resolution to see their large red getaway van in the distance.  The police searched their records for this large red van, and were able to track down this ruthless group of murderers.  Thankfully these criminals did not disable the cameras which was part of their plan.

Here is another good video

A man suspected of stealing aluminum auto wheels from a rural business wasn't guilty of a criminal break-in because the property wasn't fenced on all sides, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The unanimous ruling overturned the burglary conviction of Roger Dean Engel, who was captured on surveillance video in the outdoor yard of Western Asphalt near Maple Valley.

The company's yard was about one-third surrounded by a fence topped with barbed wire, with steep embankments, a sizable rock pile, and other natural obstacles encircling the rest of the property.

Authorities said the surveillance video, taken in early 2005, showed Engel and another man carrying away some aluminum wheels that were placed as bait for scrap-metal thieves.

Engel was convicted of felony second-degree burglary. Under state law, burglary occurs when someone illegally enters a building or enclosed area intending to commit a crime.

The legal definition of a building in such cases can include a fenced area, and King County prosecutors argued that Western Asphalt's setup should have been considered the equivalent of a complete fence.

"Otherwise, businesses like Western Asphalt would be forced to spend thousands of dollars to erect useless fences in areas that are plainly inaccessible, or clearly off-limits to the public, just to ensure that thieves would be prosecuted as burglars," Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney James Whisman wrote in a legal brief.

Engel was sentenced to two months in jail for burglary and served his time for that conviction, said his lawyer, Vanessa Mi-jo Lee. "It is a shame that he has completed his sentence for a crime that he shouldn't have been convicted of."

For more than a decade, investigators have been able to match an antenna tower with a cellphone signal to track a phone’s location to within a radius of about 200 yards in urban areas and up to 20 miles in rural areas. Now many more cellphones are equipped with global-positioning technology that makes it possible to pinpoint a user’s position with much greater precision, down to a few dozen yards.

Investigators have used cellphone tracking in a variety of ways: in Michigan to trace a fugitive suspected of killing his wife to a wilderness park, and in Florida to seek a suspected serial killer eventually killed in a police shootout.

Why the civil liberties unions are against the police using cell phone GPS data does not make sense to me. The police are using this data to track and convict suspects after a crime has occurred. The police are not making this private information public or mis-using the data. It's also very hard to refute the success rate here: 98 investigations resulting in 83 prosecutions. That's simply amazing – AND, the technology bill was not footed by the taxpayers.

A SECURITY camera installed at a Crewkerne car park has had a dramatic impact on crime. Its arrival came following a number of incidents over the past year at the car park in which the vehicles had been either damaged or broken into. And Sgt Lloyd said: “There haven’t been any offences recorded since the camera was installed in the car park.”

There are many different kinds of vehicle crime which include:  vandalism, criminal mischief, smash and grab, and vehicle thefts.  It still remains unclear just how effective a CCTV cameras are on each category of vehicle crime.  From the small amount of research out there , the answer is currently not clear.  It may just be "all of the above".

From Biting Back II: REDUCING REPEAT VICTIMISATION IN HUDDERSFIELD : Routine activity theory states that three elements have to be present for a crime to take place:

To prevent crime, you therefore need to take action to affect at least one of those conditions.

So it appears in public or private parking lots, a CCTV camera is quickly becoming a capable guardian.

According to Weisel, Smith, Garson, Pavlichev & Wartell : Three primary types of motor vehicle theft are based upon the differing motivations of offenders. These include: profit motivated theft in which stolen motor vehicles are exported, or disassembled for spare parts, and fraud; theft for transportation for short-term or prolonged use, which may be used to commit another crime; and recreational theft, often know as joyriding and typically involving youths.

If in fact these cameras are stopping vehicle thefts, there can also be a cascading effect which has the opportunity to further reduce "another crime" that the vehicle could have been used to commit.

Last week, a Wal-Mart camera captured an attempted murderers license plate in a parking lot which directed the police to the home of the suspects.  A few weeks ago, FCFA featured an article about a park in Baltimore which is experiencing less vandalism which also included technology to monitor the parking lot for illegally parked cars.

So it appears that cameras in parking lots with the correct positioning, image quality, and light levels have the potential to:

• Deter vehicle crime
• Increase apprehensions; which can
• Increase convictions

Store surveillance video was used to help catch a suspect wanted in a shooting and robbery Saturday in Bertrand Township. Michigan State Police say an 80-year-old man went to help strangers who said they had car trouble and was instead shot. His wallet was stolen and the purchases were made with his credit cards.

Police say the suspect purchased prepaid credit cards and a flat-screen TV at Wal-Mart, and bought even more credit cards and a carton of cigarettes at Meijer.

South Bend Police tracked the vehicle's license plate to this home on the city's west side.

It seems lately that cameras have been picking up all sorts of crime at these big box stores. About 10 days ago, a Target store was set on fire and robbed allegedly by it's own employees. Another recent incident shows that a Wal-Mart security camera may have captured a missing Ohio toddler with a sex offender.

This is an interesting case because it uses cameras combined with credit card transactions as a tool to investigate and track down perps. Additionally the resolution on the cameras was good enough to get license plate numbers. Way to go Wal-Mart!

Judge Woody Densen, 69, could be charged with felony criminal mischief. Prosecutors have reviewed the video, which the neighbor gave to Houston police.

Adam Kliebert, 40, a home builder who lives next door to Densen in the Rice Village neighborhood, said he installed surveillance equipment inside his townhouse in the 2300 block of Bolsover at Morningside last month and focused the cameras on his driveway because his Range Rover and his ex-girlfriend’s Mercedes had been damaged on several occasions.

Kliebert contacted Houston police May 23 after his video cameras recorded a man he said was Densen walking behind the vehicle and apparently tampering with the car twice that morning. More lengthy scratches were found on the rear door of Kliebert’s 2006 Range Rover when he went outside to inspect it.

This incident is reminiscent of the 82 year old vandal pouring acid on a neighbors car. While the video is not grainy, it does not have a clear shot of the mans face. I hope the grand jury remembers that if the dog doesn't fit, they must acquit!

A smart Edmonton cabbie installed a CCTV audio/video system in his cab in case anything went wrong.  

Meet four drunk ladies.  These ladies wanted to break the law and smoke in the cab.  When they couldn't get their way, they left the vehicle without paying and told their friends the cabbie tried to sexually assault them.

The cops were called, and the cabbie showed the camera footage to the police.  The next day the sobered-up girls apologized and paid the $13 fare.

NOT SO FAST!  The cabbie is now suing for false accusations!  

"I just want to give those girls [a] lesson," Soner Yasa told CBC News. "We're so vulnerable as a cab driver."

An expensive lesson indeed.  

It looks like CCTV inside taxi's can be a highly effective tool to increase the  accuracy of investigations.  I think this is an excellent use of the technology for the private sector to adopt.

Chalk up a rare win for the private sector and the pro-CCTV crowd!

A frustrated neighbor who had been repeatedly vandalized set up a surveillance system to catch the perp who was throwing acid on his car. It didn't take too long before this citizen-turned-crimefighter to catch the crime in action! Not only did he record the incident being performed, he was able to identify and prosecute with the photographic evidence.

It turns out the criminal was his halfway-to-dementia neighbor… And I hope that vandal thinks twice before committing a crime again.