According to our 2020 members’ survey, safety is the number one concern for our local businesses within Chinatown BIA. Most commonly-mentioned safety concerns include community safety on the streets, and frequent break-ins and shop-lifting. While a lot of our businesses have interior security cameras inside their stores, exterior security cameras are less common. We believe helping local businesses to install exterior security cameras can help address these concerns on safety.
While we acknowledge the controversy around security cameras and its potential infringement on privacy, the security cameras installed under this program will be strictly facing the storefronts and the mainstreet sidewalks immediately next to it, and the programs’ beneficiaries will need to commit themselves to the a training program on the Privacy Act, paying for the recording equipments at-cost, and the subsequent compliance for the Privacy Acts.