COLUMBIA - The Boone County Clerk has thousands of signatures to review on a petition asking for the installation and maintenance of security cameras downtown.
'Keep Columbia Safe' and its founder Karen Taylor started collecting signatures Sept. 14 after the City Council rejected two proposals for similar ordinances earlier this year. The Council will still have one more chance to review and approve the proposed ordinance. However, if members vote down the proposal again, a verified petition would allow it to appear on the April 2010 ballot and the public would have a chance to vote the ordinance into law.
After the Boone County Clerk reviews the gathered signatures for the petition, that office will submit a report to Columbia's City Clerk detailing how many of those who signed are:
-registered
-not registered
-duplicate names
-registered but not in Columbia
-invalid signatures
-registered at a different address in Columbia than what he/she noted on the petition
-registered in Columbia but the address he/she noted on the petition is not in the Columbia
"It was a big job to collect the signatures. We needed 2,579 signatures, valid signatures for this then to go on the ballot in April. We collected 3,642, which is almost 1,100 more than what we need. And we did that to make sure the ones that aren't valid, we've got plenty to cover that," Taylor said.
The City Clerk then determines whether the petition meets City Charter requirements that would allow the public to vote on it.
Taylor launched 'Keep Columbia Safe' after her son Adam was attacked by seven teens in a downtown parking garage June 6. Five of the attackers were positively identified by the footage captured by surveillance cameras.
"I think it's hard to deny that cameras are not important in aiding law enforcement. So whether it's to prevent crime or to prosecute crime that's all ready happened, it's pretty undeniable," Taylor said.
She said the ordinance proposed in the petition would leave a lot of details up to the decision of the Columbia Police Department. However, she also said would like to see the re-installation of mobile cameras like the ones the city used until the Council voted to remove them in April 2009.
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