Steve Baker hasn’t set foot in a grocery store in years, but he does frequent big box home improvement stores to purchase items needed for projects at Canton Mart Square shopping center in Jackson.
Each time he goes to one, he observes that each of those parking lot contains a mobile security trailer equipped with surveillance cameras and a flashing blue light.
“I’m glad to see that they are there but I really don’t think about it,” Baker said of what could be called virtual security guards.
Property manager at Canton Mart Square, Baker uses a different approach to monitor what’s happening at the shopping center that sits on six and a half acres at Old Canton and Canton Mart roads.
A security guard patrols Canton Mart Square seven days a week and more than a dozen cameras are mounted outside throughout the center, he said. He can check the cameras using his cell phone from his office or at his home and call the security guard on duty if he sees anything that needs to be investigated.
There’s a price to pay, however, for having a person keep watch seven days a week:
Baker estimates he pays $80,000 to $90,000 a year for security. The camera system cost about $10,000 when it was installed more than six years ago.
Cameras, whether on a security trailer and aimed at the broad expanse of a large parking lot or mounted outside and inside a small business, offer another option to full-time private security.
“Private security is a big expense,” said Tommie Brown, detective/public information officer for the Jackson Police Department.
“Technology has evolved so that business owners have access to security cameras at their business using their cell phones,” he said.
Shopping centers, construction companies and even special events can lease or purchase security trailers equipped with cameras and a blue light and can be customized as needed.
Businesses own different versions of security trailers, said Eddy Addison, assistant police chief in Ridgeland.
A security trailer may be equipped with live remote surveillance, two-way communication systems, advanced AI analytics that help distinguish real threats, automated alerts or live guard monitoring.
Whether cameras on a security trailer are monitored 24/7 or if they’re used for after-the-fact surveillance is a question for the business that owns the trailer, Brown said.
Addison considers security trailers at centers such as Walmart in Ridgeland and Lowe’s in Ridgeland as eyes on the parking lots as shoppers and employees come and go and that can sometimes be useful with investigations into various crimes.
“They’re a tool for them to say we have 24-hour surveillance,” Addison said. “They have cameras to give a warm, fuzzy feel good to consumers that their cars are being watched while they shop.”
Surveillance footage taken by cameras on mobile trailers can be useful when law enforcement investigates something like a rash of parking lot burglaries, he said.
Law enforcement does not automatically have access to the surveillance footage. Law enforcement must request security footage or have a subpoena issued in order to get it.
“The cameras are owned by the private entity where they sit,” Addison said. “We cannot tap into a camera that is outside Walmart without going through Walmart.”
Cameras on mobile trailers are not foolproof since they sit outside 24/7 in all kinds of weather, Addison said. A camera on a mobile security trailer may stop working and no one realizes it until video footage is requested, he said.
Addison doubts most people understand the service surveillance trailers provide. “I would say 60 percent of people know there’s a trailer there and have no idea what it’s there for,” he said.
In Jackson, the Jackson Police Department has security trailers with what it refers to as blue light cameras that are mobile and can be placed where needed, Brown said. The cameras on those trailers are tied to the Real Time Command Center, which tracks live videos from across the city to detect crime and coordinate immediate responses.
“During the shopping season, we might move them around to a parking lot of a store, any busy area where there’s a need for it,” he said.
Do security trailers with cameras make a difference in solving crime?
“Absolutely,” Brown said. “The difference in having them and not having them is catching criminals and not catching criminals.”
Many people are familiar with security trailers and blue light cameras, Brown said. Even so, some people will still commit crimes in sight of cameras because “they’re acting in the moment,” he said.
Mobile security trailers can be found not just in retail settings but at construction sites throughout the state to deter thefts of equipment, said Lloyd Munn, former executive director of the Mississippi Association of General Contractors.
Perception is reality, Munn said, and cameras help form that. “The perception is you’re being watched,” he said.
Some construction sites rely on both cameras and security personnel, Munn said.
Unlike people, cameras never take a break. from work. “If you’ve got a security guard and he has to run an errand or go to the restroom, that’s when someone will take advantage of the situation and strike,” he said.
Baker said he never thought Canton Mart Square needed cameras, but he has come to appreciate them.
JPD and Capitol Police have looked at the center’s video footage as part of their investigations, Baker said.
When the nearby Cadence Bank was robbed last August, law enforcement found the center’s surveillance footage helpful, he said.
Having both cameras and security personnel at the center brings peace of mind to merchants and shoppers, Baker said. Plus, security can help a customer load a large package into a vehicle, direct traffic or take care of other small tasks that arise from time to time.
“I wouldn’t give up what we have to have a security trailer,” Baker said. “I don’t think that would fit our center.”
