MEMPHIS, Tenn. — At our Oakhaven ABC24 Let's Talk gathering last week, we heard from a woman upset about the effectiveness of a Memphis Police SkyCop camera across the street from her home.
Many across the city are voicing concerns that MPD SkyCop cameras in their neighborhoods are not working anymore.
Louise Newby has lived in Oakhaven for 43 years and shares the same concerns.
Newby, who lives off Shelby Dr., said there’s recently been a rash of crime in her own backyard.
“I heard the shots; I just hit the floor," Newby said.
What she heard was a man being shot to death near the intersection of Shelby Dr. and Chevron.
Just a few months later, a car accident occurred on her street close to her house.
Newby said the driver died in that accident, and she adds similar collisions happened four times in recent years.
When MPD officials asked her if she had cameras catching the incident, Newby said she was confused because there was a SkyCop camera in front of her house that should’ve captured everything.
Newby said a police officer then told her the camera was not working.
As Newby was explaining this during ABC4's interview with her on Monday, we discovered the SkyCop camera had actually been taken down since then.
ABC24 asked MPD officials about the camera and if or when it will be replaced.
"Because these things happen right here on the corner, they have no evidence. They don’t have anything, but they look for me to tell them what happened [at] 3:00 in the morning. I don’t know," Newby said.
We emailed Memphis Police this morning about why the SkyCop camera is no longer at that Shelby Drive intersection and if it will be reinstalled, but we have yet to hear back.
We will update this story when we receive a response.