Claremont PD will be installing a security camera at Oak Park Cemetery, city officials said Monday, after a recent rash of theft and vandalism at the location.
The camera ideally will be motion-activated, Interim Police Chief Paul Cooper said. When there is motion detected at the cemetery overnight, the camera will be activated and automatically projected in full view to the dispatcher on duty at the police station.
“It will act as something of an alarm for our dispatcher,” he said.
The city is also considering locking the cemetery gates at dusk; for the past few years, Chief Cooper said, the gates have remained unlocked. But he cautioned that locked gates would not be enough to secure the cemetery.
“It’s not difficult to get into the cemetery even with the gates locked,” he said.
The cemetery, he said, is an ideal target for criminals because it is dark and secluded at night, and—because of the headstones—there is an abundant supply of bronze, the value of which has skyrocketed in recent months, along with copper.
“There is no timeline” for the installation of a camera, Chief Cooper said. “We’re investigating the cost and how to get the signal back to the police department. I’m hoping to have something done within the next 30 days.”
In the most recent criminal incident at the cemetery, which occurred over a late-October weekend, thieves cut and stole 120 feet of electrical wire leading from an electric meter to the cemetery office. The wire, made of copper, was valued at $200.
In late September, vandals knocked over 20 large headstones and uprooted flowerbeds, and earlier that month a thief stole a bronze headstone from the cemetery valued at $700.
Investigators so far have no clues or leads on any of the cemetery cases, but in the future, with a camera installed, officers hope that will change.
“We’re hoping that if a camera does go in there it would give us some leads to identify suspects in these cases,” said Capt. Gary Jenkins, adding that the camera may act as a preventative tool as well.
