SALISBURY — Salisbury Police Chief Patrick Smith had two items on the Salisbury City Council’s agenda for its meeting on Tuesday, providing an update on programs offered through the Byrne Criminal Justice Incentive and receiving approval on a five-year, $730,000 contract improving the crime center’s data collection.

The first program implemented through the BCJI was the awarding of grants to 23 community nonprofits to help fund programs providing crime prevention and neighborhood stability to the West End community, ranging from The Bread Riot’s “Mobile Vegetable Market” to Livingstone College’s summer music camp to Power Cross’ “Summer Safe Haven.” Those programs will be finished by September, said Smith, at which point the city departments and grantees will prepare a report on the outcome.

Smith also presented the results of a street lighting survey that was conducted among the members of the community, which will inform the $10,000 budgeted from the grant to improve lighting for better visibility in the area. Among those surveyed, 71 percent said that brightness was the most important factor of street lighting, followed by 57 percent saying uniformity and 57 percent saying safety (Multiple answers were accepted). The largest portion, 46 percent, of those surveyed said that they preferred white light everywhere instead of warm light or a mixture. As a result of the survey, Smith recommended that all areas be upgraded to white LED lighting.

Part of the grant was $120,000 that contributed both to the visioning and development of a nonprofit West End Neighborhood Organization. That effort has already led to the department’s street-calming ideas focused on speeding and pedestrian safety along Horah Street, including painted crosswalks and scaled-down traffic circles.

“Urbane Environment’s Gwen Jackson is working with the community to appoint officers and to build that up as well as come up with a budget. What’s unique about the West End Neighborhood Organization is that you have a lot of embedded long-term residents that are a part of that, but throughout the course of this grant a lot of younger residents of the West End have taken interest. A lot of the embedded members that have been there are looking to put a year or so into the organization and then pass the torch for newer ideas,” said Smith.

There were several grant categories, including lighting, where Smith said that the full budget may not be spent, which he said would lead to the excess funding being put into the camera budget, which currently stands at $40,000. He also said that the cameras will only be placed on businesses and city poles and that the BCJI does not allow for Ring cameras because they require an additional paid subscription, which could make them unsustainable for some.

Piggybacking off of the BCJI camera portion, Smith also asked for and received council approval to enter into an approximately $730,000, five-year contract with Fusus software to provide better data collection inside of the city’s Rowan Regional Crime Information Center. The first year, which Smith said is already in the budget, will be for approximately $100,000 and the city has the ability to terminate the contract at any time.

“If you had two cameras on your house that you wanted to give me the data to, you could purchase a core that costs as little as $200. You put it in your house, then I can tie your cameras into my crime center and have access to it. If a 911 call comes from your location, those cameras automatically wake up and start recording. They’re also working on geo-fencing on a broader scale, to where if a crime is committed within a certain geofence of your residence, your cameras automatically go ahead and start recording. They’re not constantly recording, so it’s not ‘big brother’ looking down on you all the time,” said Smith.

He also said that for those who do not wish to purchase the core allowing the cameras to automatically plug into the system, the contract includes the creation of an online public website portal allowing private cameras to be registered. If something occurs, the department knows that a nearby private property has a registered camera and can ask to view the footage of past incidents.

To answer Council Member Anthony Smith’s concerns about citizen’s privacy considering the increased access to surveillance, Chief Smith said that the department has had internal discussions laying out the ethical expectations that come with the service.

“We’re not going to access any cameras or have any cameras pointed anywhere anybody has any expectation of privacy. That’s why I said that with the cameras that are privately put in a location, they won’t activate unless a 911 call drops from the area,” said Smith.

He also said that police will not have access to private cameras unless the owner provides express consent.

At the end of the discussion, the members of the council voted unanimously to approve the contract between Fusus and the police department.