Brooklyn NY – An ultra-Orthodox group that discourages Jews from reporting sex crimes to cops without consulting a rabbi will run a state-funded, $1 million street-surveillance program aimed at catching child predators and other criminals in two predominantly Jewish Brooklyn neighborhoods.
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Agudath Israel of America will oversee a program to install 150 surveillance cameras in Borough Park and Midwood over the next few months near schools, banks, synagogues and other sites.
The plan is aimed to protect kids like Leiby Kletzky, the Borough Park schoolboy who was abducted and slain after day camp last July.
Critics ripped the selection, saying the politically connected group has a long history of shielding the Jewish community from police.
“I don’t understand the need to put a private group in charge of this, especially a group with such a questionable history of keeping information from police,” said Michael Lesher, a New Jersey lawyer and anti-sex-abuse activist.
Sources said Shomrin, a volunteer Jewish security patrol, is in line to have access to the security footage.
But Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn), who secured the $1 million grant through state Senate Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos, vowed that the NYPD would have “full access” to the footage, and that it would not be screened by another party before reaching cops.
“We encourage any witness or victim, regardless of religious affiliation, to report crime to the police and to preserve any evidence, intact, that might help identify the perpetrator,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.
If Agudah would simply stop telling yidden to consult with a Rav before reporting suspected molestation incidents, we might take this project more seriously. Instead, it appears to be just another effort to protect the molestors.
Agudah is quickly becoming the laughing stock of secular New York City.
The NYPD should be montoring these cameras, not your yentas from BP.
NYPD must have first, real time look at the surveillance footage. Other groups have other agendas, or won’t know what they’re looking at anyway.
“Frum” and Forensics are not always on the daf.
“NYPD would have “full access” to the footage, and that it would not be screened by another party before reaching cops.”
And how will he guarantee that it would not be screened by another party before reaching cops? He won’t be there to oversee anything. It’s very simple to edit these videos and keep the abusers free. Get real, people.
On the other hand, like we saw in the Leiby case, allowing shomrim to also have access to the footage might get the ball rolling faster.