Another security camera may come to Fifth Avenue

An NYPD security camera may be coming to an intersection along Fifth Avenue, where local business owners have expressed an ongoing concern about general safety and traffic issues, according to the results of a first-time survey conducted earlier this year by the Bay Ridge Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District (BID).

Councilmember Vincent Gentile told BID merchants that he is hopeful that the NYPD will soon respond to his long-standing request—filed in 2013—for another security camera in the district, specifically on Fifth Avenue, perhaps at 72nd or 76th Street, said Justin Brannan, communications director for Gentile.

In 2013, approximately $200,000 was allocated for three ARGUS security cameras to be installed in the 43^rd Council District. Two went up on 86^th Street, at Fifth and Fourth Avenues. The third one, however, went up at 85^th Street and 20^th Avenue, due to redrawing of district lines.

A new third camera for the district has been approved, but the location has yet to be decided on by the NYPD.

Pedestrian safety and quality-of-life issues such as loitering, drug dealing, street peddlers and graffiti were among the concerns brought up in the result of the BID’s four-page survey, said BID President Jim Clark.

“We wanted to determine what their priorities are for Fifth Avenue and the main problems were traffic, parking, drugs, youth groups, cleanliness and those kinds of stuff,” Clark said, noting that there are currently 84 garbage cans on the avenue and a daily street cleaning service will begin this July.

As for whether a security camera will actually come to the commercial strip, Clark noted that he doesn’t know if or when it will actually arrive, but that regardless, the BID continues to hire a local security company to conduct safety patrols along the avenue five days a week.

“We do have a security patrol and we’ll have active participation in building a community alliance with the 68^th Precinct, reporting graffiti and other issues right away” so they can be addressed, Clark said.