Nora Chan (Photo by Hut Kwan)
Dear community members and friends,
On behalf of the residents, business owners, landlords, and family associations, I would like to thank you for coming to this event to learn about the proposed system that will improve public safety in Chinatown. It has been over six years since the original pilot project of 14 surveillance cameras was installed. Within the first month of operations, we were able to identify and bring to justice several criminals who were responsible for over 20 burglaries and robberies in our community. People felt safer, and the community made a positive impact on public safety by working with law enforcement to help to identify criminal activities captured with the surveillance system. An investment in an improved surveillance system will result in reduced crime, improved resident and visitor safety and welfare, and an overall improvement to the business environment in Chinatown.
With the advances in technology, we have an opportunity to upgrade the obsolete equipment with newer, more advanced technology. Where is the funding coming from? Generous donors who care about our community have donated $80,000. These are wonderful friends—they don’t even have any relationship to Chinatown. They love the community and want to help to preserve Chinatown. Another friend, Betty Lau from Chong Wa, wrote a grant for Seniors in Action Foundation (SIAF). SIAF received $35,000 from the Historic South Downtown Foundation. With business donations and donations from seniors who live here, we already have about $135,000. More is needed to reach the goal of $300,000. For that, we need the support of everyone in Chinatown, as well as others outside of our community.
What can we do as a community?
First, SIAF is looking diligently for another camera project sponsor. Secondly, everyone can rally to contribute to our community public safety.
The surveillance system has proven to be an effective tool for law enforcement. Last winter, for example, a burglar broke into businesses along 7th and Weller to King Street and was captured in Canton Alley.
How do we know she was the same suspect who broke into all those establishments? The cameras. She was identified on video as the same person who broke into several places that night. The case went to court and she was recently convicted. We can have that success rate all over Chinatown with this new camera replacement project.
But we have to work together to make it happen!
SIAF, as a volunteer organization, led the fundraising efforts for the original project. Now we need your help again to replace the old cameras with more effective, newer technology, as well as to pay for system monitoring and maintenance.
Seattle Chinatown is one of the oldest ethnic and historic neighborhoods in the country. If we do not take the necessary measures to improve public safety in the neighborhood, then the rich cultural heritage that we have all enjoyed over the past century will be lost, never to be recreated. The small family businesses cannot survive if we do not take the necessary measures to improve public safety. We need to make the investment to improve public safety in order to preserve our traditions and our rich Asian culture for our family and grandchildren.
Critical to the success of the project is input from the community. In order to proceed with the initial pilot phase of the proposed project, we need community support, ownership, and accountability for the proposed system.
After the presentation from our consultant, we will be happy to address any questions or concerns about the proposed project. We want to make sure that the community understands the value of the new system.
We want Chinatown to continue to be a vibrant place where businesses can thrive, residents feel safe, and visitors come to experience our Asian culture.
We appreciate your commitment and support to improving public safety in our neighborhood.
I agree with Patty Fong’s comment above. I acknowledge the need for reasonable, effective measures to protect private property in Chinatown/International District.
But putting surveillance cameras in public spaces that record not just those few individuals who are doing illegal acts but also the other 99.9% who are not doing anything illegal is an unreasonable invasion of privacy.
Especially in the current political climate, I oppose any such efforts that would effectively create a more expansive, intrusive, authoritarian police state.
Do not be fooled by the mistaken and largely unsubstantiated proposal that electronic surveillance will make Chinatown safer. There are many ways to improve public safety in Chinatown but this unconstitutional method of mass surveillance is unacceptable – and inherentl undemocratic. It is authoritarian and intrusive. So who knew cameras have already been in place? And who wrote this letter to the editor? Unsigned, it is as impersonal and untransparent as the existence of current surveillance and proposed surveillance in Chinatown. I urge everyone who cares about freedom and democracy, the right to privacy, the right to free speech and assembly, to resist this authoritarian creep into our community aided and abetted by outsiders from undemocratic countries. This is my community too and I reject this threat to freedom.