Discovery Bay Crime Prevention Specialist Tony Fontenot explains the details of the EZ Child ID system to resident Diane Stevens. Stevens and her husband William donated the $5,000 digital program to the community.
Photo by Ruth Roberts
Photo by Ruth Roberts
“I am so humbled by this community,” said Fontenot, who left Discovery Bay last year because of budgetary cuts, but was rehired with P6 funds in June. “They have done so much to make us feel welcome here. I just can’t thank everyone enough.”
Last week Fontenot had yet another opportunity to thank the community when Diane Stevens, a resident of The Lakes development, purchased a $5,000 child-identification system and donated it to the Discovery Bay crime-prevention office.
“We really believe in protecting our children,” said Stevens, who bought the system in honor of her father-in-law, who recently died. “And we’re just so grateful that our P6 dollars came through and has given Tony back to us. I’ve never had children of my own, so this is my husband’s and my way to do something for the children out here. It’s going to be such a wonderful thing for the community.”
The digital fingerprinting system, called EZ Child, is a portable identification system that creates two fingerprint IDs as well as photos and pertinent information on each child, including a digital voice video. The process takes just a few minutes, and then the information is burned onto a CD and given to the parents. The file is then deleted from the system so that parents remain the only ones with the data on their child.
“It’s not something you want to think about, but if your child does go missing, this (fingerprinting system) will help find them,” said Fontenot. “The service would also be beneficial for the elderly as well.”
Fontenot said the system will be free to the public, and he plans to take it local schools and community events: “This is a wonderful thing, and I’m just so grateful to Diane for her gift to the community. This is just another example of how the residents of Discovery Bay continually step up to make their town a safer place to live.”
The Sheriff never said he would run the surveillance system. If you have any document or quote from him that says otherwise, now would be an opportune time to post it. This was to be a citizen run system, but it never reached the stage of having a complete proposal for acquisition, permitting, installation, monitoring or maintenance. Last I heard they had collected enough for 1 or 2 cameras. That's a far cry from a comprehensive plan.
The Sheriff was proposing taking taxpayer dollars to use in a private system. He didn't even bother to run it by the people who contributed those tax dollars before making the expenditure request and as far as I know the 1 or 2 cameras wouldn't have benefited anyone but the older Discovery Bay. It's a shame that the Pastorini's put so much of their heart into that effort and no one got in there with them to do the heavy lifting. Most, if not all figured writing a check was sacrifice enough, I guess. Grass roots efforts like that take much, much more.
It's been almost 9 months since the Sheriff's earlier proposal which was pulled from funding. Why did he allow the dream to die? Why didn't he get in there and help Pastorini complete the plan? He did nothing more than offer some personal money, then attempt to funnel taxpayer funds in a very questionable move. That's not what I call "support", but maybe you're OK with taking other peoples' money for your own little projects.
The idea failed because people weren't willing to do the work necessary to make it succeed. A comprehensive plan would have been a good first step. Now to save face they seem to be looking for someone else to blame.
I was watching the news just a couple of weeks ago and the lead story was a shooting in Richmond. Within a quarter mile of the crime scene in two different directions were cameras. Both were about a year old and both were not working. Just goes to show what poor planning and a false sense of security they offer.
That's on a year basis, smart guy. It's not twisting simply because you don't know about the statistics or can't understand them for that matter. You can do the research yourself. You can argue me all you want, but you can't argue the statistics. You have the right to your opinion, not your own facts.
Wow, the Sheriff supports the program? it must be great!
Furthermore, the London cameras are manned at all times, something the DB ones couldn't afford or hell, were even planned for as a matter of fact (there was and still is NO plan)
This Surveillance program is a pipe dream.
The Sheriff of this county supports surveillance systems. I wonder why if they are of no value?
I do not believe the numbers you listed. How can you say "average 1 crime solved" but not state the time period you are referring to? Is that 1 per hour, 1 per day, 1 per week. When you make stuff up or twist numbers to mislead try to be a little more convincing.
Out of 1,000,000 cameras in England (1 for ever 8 people), they average 1 crime solved per 1,000 cameras.
Who told you that…Don Flint? jeff barber? Bill Richardson?
I have news for you-none of them are elected nor have a say in the matter. Here is another newsflash; neither does the Sheriff. It is NOT his money and is controlled by the Board of Supervisor’s who (Thank God) are listening to the very people who fund P6!
So if you think raising less than half the money for a system that had no plan was a slam dunk you may have been duped. The people that have to be responsible were and that is where this end game blame started and that has no place in this debate unless you want to figure out the real answers on your own. Pipe dreams don’t work.
Safer from a camera system that would not have run in real time? Wow, blaming the responsible agencies and individuals is really a stretch but now you label responsible people such as Bob Mankin, the CSD and a few “others” control freaks? How about maybe they were thinking things through using what might be foreign thought processes to you known as reality and responsibility. Maybe they were listening to ALL the people in the community that attended CSD and town hall meeting that did not want a camera system without a plan?
Got in the way? A good thing? So what would be your qualifications to make those statements. Are you an elected official by the people of this community or county? Were you directly involved in the process? Did you raise issues that were persuasive enough to completely fund and maintain the system? Did you persuade the people that are charged with this responsibility of assuring the community is best served?
C’mon big dog, I am sure you know the answers and they embarrass you!
The whole project was bush league, I have seen 12 year old girls run better programs, from start to finish. All involved on the programs side should be ashamed of how they have played politics with their own failure.
No one stopped the Surveillance system but those who were involved. They put together no plan and couldn't raise enough money. The way this group has placed its failure on the CSD and bob Mankin is just disgusting.
Grow up guys
and thank you thank you
Diane for what you have given the town. As a father of two young girls I can't thank you enough.
Thanks Diane for the generous gift to the Town!
Don