More surveillance cameras will be going up in Gastonia parks

GASTONIA, N.C. — More surveillance cameras are going up across parks in Gastonia.

Channel 9’s partners at the Gaston Gazette report the city is planning to add 16 cameras around parks between now and next summer.

The Parks and Rec director said it will allow them to check the most heavily used areas, such as lakefronts, restrooms and playgrounds.

Rankin Lake Park has five security cameras and that technology was used during the search for 6-year-old Maddox Ritch last year.

The boy ran away from his father at the park in September 2018 and his body was found several days later in a nearby creek.

With safety in mind, the city said it will be adding cameras to seven local parks:

• Lineberger Park
• Martha Rivers Park
• Skeet and Trap Range
• T Jeffers Centers
• Erwin
• Ferguson Park
• Sims Legion Park

Each camera costs $1,400. The city’s park and recreation department as well as Gastonia police will have access to the cameras.

Channel 9′s Gina Esposito spoke with a mother, Whitney Schutz, who said she is not completely on board with the installation of the cameras.

“I do think it’s a waste of money if you do want to put up a bunch of cameras,” Schutz said. “I don’t feel like they need surveillance cameras. It feels relatively safe to me and my kids usually with good eyesight.”

Timeline of Missing 6-year-old Maddox Ritch Timeline of Missing 6-year-old Maddox Ritch

Two cameras have been installed at Skeet and Trap Range and Ferguson Park, and Gastonia police said they have already made a difference.

According to a police report, the camera at Ferguson Park led to the arrest of a man after they said he had broken into a truck.

We crime mapped all the parks and found less than four crimes reported at each one over the past year. Most were for assaults, robberies and burglaries.

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