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NORTH SALT LAKE — The city of North Salt Lake plans to replace “dummy” cameras with real ones at Hatch Park after Mackenzie Lueck’s friends voiced their concerns about the devices following Lueck’s disappearance.
Cameras and signs that say Hatch Park, 50 W. Center St., is “monitored by video surveillance” are meant to deter crime, but the cameras don’t actually record. When Lueck went missing after she was last seen in Hatch Park, the city revealed that the cameras could not have captured any evidence of her disappearance.
Lueck’s friends spoke before the city council Tuesday night and argued that the dummy cameras offered those in the park a false sense of security that the area was being monitored. Real cameras would have also given police more headway during the investigation, they said.
“I don’t think it would have saved her life, but I think it would have given us a lot more evidence,” Lueck’s friend Ashley Fine said. “It would have saved a lot of tax dollars because the police wouldn’t have had to get as many warrants, and just time, precious time.”
The city council members acknowledged the importance of replacing the cameras, especially since the community now knows they don’t actually record. They voted to add three to four cameras in Hatch Park, though North Salt Lake Mayor Len Arave would not reveal the time and place of the installation for security reasons. The cameras will cost roughly $6,000 to $8,000.
The city may also look into putting cameras in other parks around the city.
Council members commended Lueck’s friends for bringing the issue before the city and making a real change.
“The way they’ve pursued this has been wonderful. It’s been very productive, and I can’t say enough about them being involved and trying to make communities better,” Arave said.
Lueck disappeared June 17 when she took a Lyft from the Salt Lake City International Airport and met up with someone in a car at Hatch Park. Nearly two weeks later, police took Ayoola Ajayi, 31, into custody, and he was later charged with murder, aggravated kidnapping, desecration of a human body and obstruction of justice.
Police found Lueck’s body in Logan Canyon 17 days after she disappeared.
