BEAUMONT, Texas — Beaumont City leaders are sharing their plans to protect parks after Charlton-Pollard Park was vandalized.
Last Thursday, city crews found extensive damage done to the men's bathroom, a park bench, the splash pad and two water fountains were ripped out of the wall.
Now, the city is taking action and considering adding surveillance cameras to Charlton-Pollard Park.
City leaders also want to add cameras to other parks across the city.
Councilmen Audwin Samuel and Mike Getz said, “enough is enough.”
They say that they want more eyes on parks to keep park-goers in and vandals out.
“That was devastating," said Beaumont City Council, Ward 3 Audwin Samuel. "That was terrible what happened to Charlton-Pollard Park.”
Samuel is still devastated after seeing the thousands of dollars in damage done to Charlton-Pollard Park last week.
"We've just gotten some things done there, and it's just devastating to see that destroyed in a matter of one night," he said. "It has to stop."
Samuel and Ward 2 Councilman Mike Getz say they fully support adding surveillance cameras.
"I think everybody is going to be on board, we have five parks already with 360-degree cameras, said Samuel. "And we also have the license plate readers in some of the parks. We spent over $66,000 for cameras."
Samuel says the cost for additional electronic eyes would be well worth the budget if it means people are safe and equipment is protected.
"It will probably be between 60 and $100,000 to make sure we cover all parks," said Samuel.
Samuel says he would eventually like to see more cameras connected to BPD’s real-time crime center.
"That's the beauty in this whole thing, it can be connected to street lights, any house that has a Ring doorbell, and they can actually track someone that's committed a crime," he said.
Samuel says plans are already in motion to add cameras and stop what happened at Charlton-Pollard Park from happening again.
"From the time that, that happened, we all understood that we had to do more, and it's going to cost, because the loss that we suffered would be justifying the increase in attention to all of our parks," he said.
12New spoke to Beaumont Police about the recent vandalism and they said they are still investigating.
In the meantime, city leaders are waiting on quotes to determine exactly how much repairs will cost.
This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.