GREENPOINT — Police upgraded surveillance cameras aimed at McGolrick Park so they can livestream video feeds from the green space directly to a nearby NYPD stationhouse and the department's North Brooklyn headquarters, officials said.
The new technology installed Wednesday morning came in response to the stabbing death of playwright George Carroll next to the park Friday night, as well as a duct-tape swastika found on a picnic table last week, leading concerned locals to gather Monday night to call for better policing of the park.
The stabbing took place too far away from the centrally located NYPD camera to be captured on video, Maddrey said. The swastika vandalism occurred only about 15 feet away from where the camera sits, but the act was somehow not caught on video, he noted, insisting it had been working last week.
"The camera was fully operational," said Jeffrey Maddrey, assistant chief of Patrol Borough Brooklyn North.
Prior to Wednesday's upgrades, investigators had to go to the camera and download any footage directly from it. Now they've installed a stronger router to allow for livestreaming capabilities directly into the 94th Precinct stationhouse in Greenpoint, as well at Patrol Borough Brooklyn North in Bushwick, Maddrey said.
NYPD cameras were first mounted in McGolrick Park in 2013, in response to an outcry from Greenpoint residents over the vandalism of a Civil War memorial statue, an attempted arson and a knife held to a puppy's neck, according to New York Daily News reports from the time.
