Mayor Wants Crime-Watch Cameras On Street CornersPOSTED: 5:55 pm EDT May 23,
2007 PITTSBURGH -- Imagine crime watch cameras on your neighborhood street corner, but watching you, too.Cameras are already being used in Chicago, and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl wants to bring them to Pittsburgh.Pittsburgh is targeting a wave of violence in city neighborhoods, and Ravenstahl wants to make video surveillance in crime hot spots part of the solution.He is seeking Homeland Security money for the job.Ravenstahl said he's impressed by what Chicago police said is a 79 percent drop in police calls in areas where cameras are on watch.The cameras there can scan 360 degrees, see as far as two blocks away and record street activity day and night."To fight crime more efficiently and differently than we have in the past, and that is with the use of cameras," said Ravenstahl.Chicago police that patrol high-crime areas said the cameras practically shut down a west side open air drug market.In patrol cars, police can tap into a live, wireless feed from the cameras.Ravenstahl also wants to tie security cameras of private businesses into a city anti-crime network."Have one centralized system that private business owners or businesses that have cameras, the city of Pittsburgh that has cameras, the Port of Pittsburgh that has cameras, all are integrated into one system," said Ravenstahl.Heinz Field already has state-of-the-art surveillance that captured images of two Carnegie Mellon University students allegedly trying to get inside the stadium after hours.Ravenstahl said cameras could help catch criminals and discourage crime."As has been shown in Chicago to do just that, and it really works," said Ravenstahl. "And it helps our community, more so than it is big brother."Chicago's adding gunshot detection technology that can pinpoint gunshots within 20 feet of their source.The Pittsburgh American Civil Liberty Union hasn't taken a stand on Ravenstahl's street corner camera proposal, but it has acknowledged before that there is not an expectation of privacy on public streets.The debate could come over who has access to those pictures and how they are used. Related Links: More County NewsGet RSS | E-Mail Alerts Copyright 2007 by ThePittsburghChannel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
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