"When we deal with surveillance footage, it definitely aids our agency with being able to make apprehensions," Mulcahy said. "It's proven to be an advantageous tool to solving crime."
In November 2006, a 16-year-old high school student and a Secret Service agent were wounded in a shooting at Westfield Annapolis mall. And in January 2008, a teenager was stabbed at The Mall in Columbia.
Jones said Arundel Mills' vicinity to three major roadways - the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, Interstate 95 and Route 100 - makes the shopping center an attractive spot for criminals looking to make a quick getaway.
Les Morris, a spokesman for Simon Malls, the Indianapolis-based parent company of Arundel Mills, said he could not comment on pending legislation, but the Hanover property has cameras "both inside and outside." David Keating, a spokesman for General Growth Properties Inc., the parent company of Baltimore County's White Marsh Mall, said the facility is equipped with a closed-circuit television system, but declined to further discuss the mall's public safety measures.
In Baltimore County, police say mall crime has dropped since the law passed.
From 2007 to 2008, for example, auto thefts from the county mall's parking lots decreased from 141 to 98, said Bill Toohey, a Baltimore County police spokesman.
"You can't definitely say the cameras are responsible for that, but if the criminals do know there are cameras there, they're much more likely to go where they don't think they'll be detected," Toohey said.
