Pittsburgh to go high-tech with security cameras soon

[HiredGoon]

City to go high-tech with security cameras soon

Saturday, March 28, 2009
By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette

These won't be your typical store security cameras, but rather high-tech devices that look like white tool boxes laying glass eggs. They will send the footage wirelessly to powerful computers that will analyze and store it.

"You can zoom three blocks away and read a business card or a license plate," said Darrin Lipscomb, president of Avrio Group, a Maryland firm that won a competition to be the city's surveillance camera vendor. "We're going to have very sophisticated viewing stations that will allow any number of people to view these cameras in any number of ways."

"With the technology that these cameras will have, it will greatly assist in stopping homicides on the street, as well as stopping other criminal acts on the street," said Police Chief Nate Harper. "So when these cameras roll out, we will see a reduction in crime."

There's little hard data on cameras' effects on crime. But city officials believe they have a plan to protect against terrorism, link existing Downtown cameras, and deter crime in troubled neighborhoods.

This year, the city wants to put 32 cameras on bridges and 20 to 80 in neighborhood hotspots, link another 120 existing and privately owned Downtown cameras, install 48 devices for recognizing license plate numbers, and build a computer backbone for analyzing the footage.

First among neighborhoods will be the Mexican War Streets, which will get at least a half-dozen cameras, fulfilling a promise Mr. Ravenstahl made after the shooting of a mail carrier in the neighborhood a year ago.

"It is an area that does have some crime, but it is also an area that people have invested a significant amount of money, and we want to make sure that we protect that investment and keep this area a safe area," Mr. Ravenstahl said.

A city ordinance on cameras allows the police chief to decide on placement of the well-marked cameras, based on crime patterns, the potential to deter mischief, and community support. Mr. Ravenstahl said one or two neighborhoods in each of the city's six police zones will get cameras this year.

The final number of cameras depends on when the money runs out. The initial $4.1 million investment includes $2.59 million from the Department of Homeland Security, intended to guard ports against terrorism, $862,000 in local money and $625,000 in state funds. Mr. Ravenstahl said he'll look for more money to expand the system.

Avrio built a 60-camera system in Denver for $1.5 million, after that city did some of the programming in-house in a rush to secure last year's Democratic National Convention.

"Crime has decreased anywhere from 30 to 45 percent in the areas that we have cameras," said Lt. Ernie Martinez, the Denver Police Department's observation project manager, adding that they haven't crunched all of the numbers yet.

Buffalo got a 67-camera system for $3 million last year, and plans to double it, said Capt. Mark Makowski of the Buffalo Police Department. "We've had great acceptance by the public," he said, but it's too early to tell how it has affected crime.

Results depend on how the cameras are used, said Chris Jensen, who managed Phoenix's camera system when he was a detective there and now works for a security products distributor.

Phoenix turned to Avrio in 2006 when a two-man team known as the Random Shooters and a lone murderer called the Baseline Rapist were causing hysteria. The city put up 30 hidden cameras in a five-square-mile area, and though they didn't get footage of the killers, Mr. Jensen said they were essential to the result.

The cameras "freed up 30 officers per shift, or 90 officers per 24-hour period, that were then able to go follow up on the thousands of leads we were getting from citizens," he said. "Within a month of having the cameras up, we were able to get arrests in both cases."

Chicago has been the nation's camera pioneer, deploying thousands of electronic eyes in a $30 million system. Seeing the command center in January 2007 inspired Mr. Ravenstahl to order the long march to yesterday's announcement.

The city asked for information from interested firms in June 2007, and 23 companies responded. In the end, nine competing groups including 43 companies submitted proposals, which city officials and a consultant weighed largely on the basis of quality before settling on Avrio.

Mr. Lipscomb said he would involve at least three local companies in the job but wasn't ready to name them.

City Council passed a privacy policy that restricts the use of panning and zooming, and automatic tracking of an individual, to instances in which there's cause to believe a crime has been, or is being, committed. It requires that footage be erased within 10 days unless it must be kept as part of an investigation of a crime or incident in which the city may be liable.

Mr. Lipscomb said the system can be programmed to fit privacy policies. "So if we put it somewhere that there's a private residence, you can mask out part of [the field of view]," he said.

"Ultimately, everybody wants [cameras]," he said when asked about privacy concerns. "For improving safety and security, it's just essential."
Rich Lord can be reached at rlord@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1542.

[Emptymag]

I feel safer already.

[tntblaster]

lol... i hope those cameras are bulletproof....

[soberbyker]

Philadelphia has been using them for a few years now, started with only 18 but supposedly have over 250 now. They are well marked with flashing blue lights to let you know they're there high a top a pole.

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[Emptymag]

Philadelphia has been using them for a few years now, started with only 18 but supposedly have over 250 now. They are well marked with flashing blue lights to let you know they're there high a top a pole.

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A few years now?

So can I assume that it's a "safer" place now?
Is all the stuff about the crime and police officers being shot there a big lie?

What gives?

[soberbyker]

A few years now?

So can I assume that it's a "safer" place now?
Is all the stuff about the crime and police officers being shot there a big lie?

What gives?

Well best I can figure the criminals see the cameras, shake in their boots and start to run, after running a few blocks they realize there isn't any cameras there and now have a new corner to hang on .... 250 cameras for about 135 square miles .... yea that'll do it .

Oh yea when they first started the camera "program" they said they had a reveiw type commitee in place to make sure the cameras were only used for security and weren't being used to invade privacy type issues.

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