Sherwood Forest seeks city-parish approval for cameras at neighborhood entrances
BATON ROUGE - In January of 2019 a beloved teacher and mother of three was shot to death on a relatively quiet street in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood; shocked and grieving, the community then stepped up its efforts to obtain security equipment for their area.
Even before Nessa Hartley's death, Sherwood Forest's residents had been hoping to obtain license plate readers and cameras. But after she was gunned down in her car while on Brookshire Avenue, locals brought their concerns public, outspokenly requesting security equipment for their neighborhood.
The Sherwood Crime Prevention District has been working with Baton Rouge Police to install cameras and license plate readers at each of the neighborhood's 16 entrances.
The plan will be discussed at Baton Rouge Metro Council's Wednesday evening meeting and hopefully meet with final approval.
If approved, the cameras will be monitored by the district's current security patrol and by the Baton Rouge Police Department through its Real Time Crime Center.
Officials hope these new security measures taken in Sherwood Forest will serve as a prototype for other crime prevention districts.