The grandmother of the 7-year-old Erie boy killed by gun violence is calling on the city of Erie to install video cameras in high crime neighborhoods.

At the funeral for Antonio "ESPN" Yarger Jr. over the weekend, where everyone came dressed as super heroes, Yarger's grandmother used part of her remarks to call out Mayor Joe Schember by name, saying he could to more to protect Erie's families.

She said since the mayor and city officials know where the high crime areas are, she said they should install closed circuit tv cameras there.

Mayor Schember, who attended the funeral, told Erie News Now that he appreciated her remarks and said his staff is open to the idea, but would want neighborhood input before taking action. "Nothing she talked about bothered me in any way, in fact I gave her a hug as she left the stage to thank her for her comments and everything, we're certainly open to looking at things," Mayor Schember said.  "I think we need to have a lot of conversation, we need a lot of input from police and residents where we're thinking of putting something, there's a lot of work still to be done."  

The Schember administration has set aside $5-million in American Rescue Plan funds to improve city parks.  They will begin by surveying neighbors about what they'd like to see in park improvements including whether funds should include security cameras.  "During those surveys and interviews that we do that's one of the questions that we're talking about, we're going to ask the neighbors should we put cameras into these inner city parks," Schember said.
 
We asked the mayor if he believes more cameras would not only help police solve crimes, but would deter them?  "I think it's very possible, but if you know there's cameras everywhere, whatever you do is going to be captured and everybody's going to know exactly what you did, I think cameras would really defer a lot of crime in Erie," he said.