NATCHEZ — Friday afternoon a group of young men gathered in front of a building in the Holiday Apartments.

Discussions escalated into pushing and shouting and developed into a situation that could have become a fight.

Natchez police officers were called to the scene, Natchez Police Chief Walter Armstrong said.

The call was placed, however, not by local residents but rather by a person in New Orleans who was monitoring one of several cameras that have been installed in the complex in recent months.

The cameras were installed through Project NOLA, a non-profit organization that installs and monitors cameras to help reduce crime.

“We responded and arrested three guys,” said Walter Armstrong, Natchez police chief.

The arrests, included one suspect, who had been eluding police since last year’s break-in at the Natchez Sports Center in which several guns were stolen, Armstrong said.

The other arrests were for marijuana and police recovered a gun at the scene, which later proved not to have been stolen, Armstrong said.

“They told us where they were,” Armstrong said of the call from the person in New Orleans.

The suspects ran when police arrived, Armstrong said, and the camera monitor was able to tell officers which apartment the suspects went to.

“They put the officers right on top of the guys,” Armstrong said.

“Project NOLA saw what was brewing and was able to tell us,” Armstrong said. “We were able to move in and make an arrest. It very well could have ended in somebody being hurt if officers had not been able to get over there and make those arrests.”

Armstrong said Friday’s incident is just one of several incidents that have occurred since cameras were installed late last year in the Holiday Apartments, the scene of several shootings and crimes last year.

Deterrent

Local law enforcement officials say the cameras now in the Holiday Apartments have not only helped to prevent but also have helped solve crimes and have aided in several arrests.

“Over in that area prior to those cameras being installed, we had people coming over and shooting in to those apartments and the residents shooting back trying to defend themselves,” said Travis Patten, Adams County sheriff. “Since the cameras were put up, it has changed things dramatically.”

Patten said he believes installation of the cameras prompted some criminals to move out of the Holiday Apartments.

“The cameras have helped us strategically plan how we respond to incidents and do business, how we deal with incidence in that area,” Patten said.

The cameras, Patten said, also have aided law enforcement in planning arrests of suspects, including Jordan Johnson, 22, the suspect in a Dec. 14 murder in Jonesville, Louisiana.

Johnson was arrested in the parking lot of the Holiday Apartments Dec. 15 after the killing.

Patten said the cameras helped officers strategically plan the arrest and to monitor movements of the suspect before and during the arrest.

Private citizen installed

The management of Holiday Apartments installed the cameras in the complex last year at the company’s own expense through Project NOLA, Patten said.

“We are definitely advocates of people installing cameras in their own homes

Even a glimpse of a vehicle passing can be enough to affect an arrest,” Patten said.

Project NOLA is a 501c3 non-profit organization founded in 2010 and funded by private donations.

“Project NOLA works with individuals, associations and municipalities to place cost-subsidized High Definition Crime Cameras in needed areas,” the organization’s mission statement says. “Video is transmitted via the Internet to the Project NOLA National Real-Time Crime Center, where analysts provide valuable information to units responding to breaking crimes and dangerous situations. Project NOLA may also transmit live crime camera video to local RTCC’s and 911 Centers.”

Bryan Lagrade, executive director of Project NOLA, said 10 to 20 cameras have been installed in Natchez since Natchez reached out to Project NOLA.

“In Natchez, it started when the local police came over and talked to us and took that information and went back,” Lagrade said. “The owner of one of the apartments put cameras up and crime went down.”

Lagarde said Friday’s monitoring and arrests in the Holiday Apartments is just one example of what the cameras can do.

“This is an ongoing thing,” Lagarde said. “We’ve had a number of successes.”

Project NOLA began in New Orleans in 2010 working with residents and business owners and has since installed more than 2,500 high-definition cameras.

New Orleans’ 2018 murder rate was the lowest since 1971, Lagarde said.

“We have helped the city reduce the murder rate to the lowest since 1971,” Lagarde said. “We helped reduce armed robberies, too.”

Lagarde said the organization has not met resistance for privacy or civil liberty reasons.

“When we started,” Lagarde said, “we were honestly surprised how quickly we were accepted.”

Lagarde said he believes the lack of resistance to Project NOLA is because 98 percent of the cameras installed through Project NOLA are on private residences and businesses and are aimed at public streets and public access areas.

Lagarde said it is not as if municipalities are installing cameras on every street corner and every publicly owned building or pointing them into private residences.

“These are going on private property and hosted by private citizens,” Lagarde said. “People are very receptive to what we do.”

More cameras in Natchez

Armstrong and Patten both said they encourage people to consider installing cameras on their personal properties.

Project NOLA offers high definition cameras at reduced prices and the city of Natchez will pay $20 per month for cloud storage of every camera private citizens and businesses install, Armstrong said.

“(The Natchez Mayor and Board of Aldermen) has agreed to partnership with Project NOLA and the city will pay for storage of cameras as long as it is an area that covers what is transpiring on the street,” Armstrong said, “$20 per month, per camera.”

Armstrong said citizens would have to purchase the cameras themselves at $385 per commercial-grade camera through Project NOLA with a $200 installation fee.

The commercial grade camera, Armstrong said, can see much further and can be manipulated remotely in terms of turning it and zooming in up to 1,000 yards. A residential-grade camera, Armstrong said, is available through Project NOLA at $150 with a fixed, one-direction lens and a $175 installation fee.

Armstrong said privately owned cameras were instrumental in helping the city solve an Oct. 1, 2017, crime in which several men drove through Natchez in a pickup truck shooting at random and killing a man.

Suspects, some of whom were later convicted, were identified using footage obtained from cameras owned by private citizens, Armstrong said.

More developments adding cameras

Natchez Housing Authority has budgeted $350,000 to install cameras in properties managed by the authority, said Janice Herbert, assistant director of the Natchez housing authority.

The housing authority board, Herbert said, will meet Feb. 12 to decide which company will get the camera contract for the cameras.

Patten and Armstrong said they have been in discussions with management of the Cambridge Heights and Marilyn Heights residential communities and management of both of those subdivisions have expressed interest in adding cameras to their complexes.