The U.S. Department of Justice has approved the City of Newburgh’s request to redirect funds for security cameras. The approval comes after U.S. Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney urged that the funding be repurposed.
The Democratic lawmakers say just more than $152,000 from a previously approved Project Safe Neighborhoods grant will go toward installing new digital surveillance cameras in Newburgh and fix cameras that aren’t working. The city last year received a Project Safe Neighborhoods grant worth nearly $460,000. However, the lawmakers said the Justice Department took back $152,000 of this funding because of a bureaucratic error. At the end of August, 18-year-old Keyshan Gayle was fatally shot on a dark street where a security camera reportedly wasn’t working. Since, his mother and others have been calling for more security cameras and better street lighting.
