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Jacksonville city budgets millions to create uniform surveillance system to combat crime

The City of Jacksonville said it’s considering $3.3 million in requests to revamp the city’s surveillance camera system.

The budget would help fund new cameras, along with upgrading and maintaining current systems.

Action News Jax obtained a new document that breaks down the locations where the cameras could go.

It includes 45 cameras at Waters Street Garage and two cameras at JFRD’s Metro Park Fire Station.

The spreadsheet proposes replacing security cameras at the Duval County Courthouse and system upgrades to current cameras at various JSO substations across the city.

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The objective is to create a uniform network system to increase public safety, according to Brian Hughes, Mayor Lenny Curry's chief of staff.

Hughes said officials are working to figure out what system would work best with JSO’s Real-Time Crime Center.

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He said investigators would be able to pull video from a web-based server rather than having to send a detective to the location of a crime.

“By tying in cloud-based or network-based cameras into JSO’s larger infrastructure, it will help them investigate crimes, it will help them with a number of different capacities as it relates to where to put patrols,” Hughes said.

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Hughes, who is leading the security camera working group, said the city set aside $3 million - about $300,000 shy of the request.

“If we need to go back and look at how we've allocated and look for some additional wiggle room, the mayor's always committed to giving public safety what it needs to work,” Hughes said.