Signal Mountain will consider cameras after rash of break-ins

photo Signal Mountain tile

A rash of break-ins on Signal Mountain has some residents there wishing the city would follow in the footsteps of Lookout Mountain, Tenn., and install cameras to record the license plate of every vehicle that comes through town.

The Town Council is expected to discuss the concept of license plate cameras at its 11:30 a.m. work session today.

"I think maybe we should put up cameras, like Lookout Mountain did," said a woman who lives on North Palisades Drive. She was among a handful of residents to raise concerns about the break-ins to council members at the panel's meeting this week.

"I was one of the first houses robbed," she said. "They took about $15,000 worth of electronics from my house."

Signal Mountain's interim police chief, Scott Ogrodowczyk, said Thursday that 19 home burglaries have occurred this year.

"Up here, it's more than we're used to," Ogrodowczyk said.

Some of the break-ins appear related, he said. They mainly occur during the day, he said, and the burglars gain entry through windows hidden from view and usually steal consumer electronics.

Signal Mountain police are working with departments in other areas where burglars have struck, Ogrodowczyk said, including Red Bank, Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Sequatchie County and Soddy-Daisy.

"Everybody's getting hit with this stuff," he said.

Most of Signal Mountain's break-ins occurred in the past three months, city officials say. The most recent was on Nov. 10, when two homes were burglarized in the Birnam Woods-Hidden Brook area.

A woman came home to find a white 1980s to 1990s Toyota Corolla or Honda Accord in the driveway. She saw two dread-locked black men in their teens or early 20s leave her house, get into the car and drive across her yard to avoid her vehicle at the end of the driveway.

Mayor Dick Gee said Monday that he expected the council members to discuss the concept of cameras today.

"Is it possible? Of course, if it's the right thing to do," Gee said Monday night. "It's not something that I would call my favorite course of action. But it may just be that I've got to put aside my prejudice in this thing."

Lookout Mountain installed cameras at the five entrances to town early this year. They were paid for with $88,000 in large and small donations from close to 300 people. The cameras were a response to a rash of summer break-ins by an organized gang of 10 Chattanooga burglars -- some of whom came armed.

We saw this east of our office in north Springdale.

Posted by NWADG on Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Lookout Mountain, Tenn., city officials, who led the project, said they weren't going to use the cameras to catch traffic violators, but instead only would review license plates and vehicle photos to investigate crimes.

"I do know there have been a couple of cases where the cameras have been useful in tracking down a burglary suspect," said Dwight Montague, the town consultant for the Tennessee side of Lookout Mountain.

"I had run into some people from Signal Mountain last week who were bemoaning the burglaries," Montague said. "It does seem like things have been especially quiet -- quieter than usual -- on Lookout Mountain. So it could be that it's actually working."

Ogrodowczyk said home surveillance cameras are effective and can be purchased inexpensively at big-box stores. Some systems will alert a homeowner's smart phone when an intruder enters, he said.

A Signal Mountain man got still photos with a motion-activated camera made for hunters equipped with infrared for night photos that led to the arrest of a vandal.

"I know people don't like to have cameras in their home," Ogrodowczyk said. "But it's their camera; they're in control of it."

Staff writer Kelsie Bowman contributed to this story.

Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/tim.omarzu or twitter.com/TimOmarzu or 423-757-6651.

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