Important Numbers

Police/Fire/EMS 911
Lawrenceville United 412.802.7220
Crime Stoppers 412.255.TIPS (8477)
Abandoned Cars 412.255.4776
Section 8 Problems 412.456.5051
Trash Problems 412.255.4155
Housing Problems 412.255.4155
Narcotics 412.323-7777

Meeting with Chief Harper

Today Fran Escalante, David Hance, Elaine Zelmanov and I met with Pittsburgh Police Chief Nathan Harper. Also attending was Zone 5 Commander Ross and John Warren, Executive Assistant to Chief Harper.

The meeting went very well and was productive. All of us presented our concerns and I feel we were heard.

Because I want to get this email out quickly here are some highlights in a nutshell:

Chief Harper feels that having a cohesive and active block watch will relieve some of our problems, he suggests initially we meet at least twice a month and as a group continue to call 911 at the first sign of ANY disturbance. Often he said a disturbance can lead to more trouble---so it is very important to call 911 early. The Chief also stressed everyone should call, right down the line---house to house and not too assume the neighbor who lives closer to the disturbance has already called. The number of recorded calls are important in establishing a nuisance or disruptive property. Also when calling 911 please be sure to specify the address of the property and not just say the corner of Jackson and Mellon (unless of course that is where it is). Be sure you say 830 Mellon, or 919 Mellon or wherever the incident may be.

The city is getting ready to implement the Disruptive Property Ordinance---there are many factors that can classify a property as disruptive some of those are: noise control, riot, failure to disperse, loitering, endangering children, underage drinking, etc. There are many more listed all having to do with quality of life issues. The city is looking at properties in our area to use as a test model.

Converting Mellon Street one way to Bunkerhill with St. Clair Street one way to East Liberty Avenue was discussed too. However changing a two way street to one way is a process involving planning and community involvement.

Remember starting July 1 the curfew ordinance will be in effect.
From the Post Gazette:

"During the new patrols, police will be stopping young people under 17 who are out past the city's curfew, Chief Harper said. In July and August, the city's curfew requires that youths younger than 17 be off public streets by 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and by midnight on weekends (the curfew starts an hour earlier in other months)."

I'll have more later but most importantly with the noise level getting higher in the past few days and fireworks exploding on our streets--- please everyone call 911--- Zone 5 is ready to serve us and are listening to us--- as neighbors we need to "observe and report" so that the police can "serve and protect."

To quote Commander Ross, everyone has to "stay on top of it."

A New Low

Here's what happened to one of our residents living in the 800 block of Mellon last week.

On Wednesday June 11th 2008, a hate crime as well as a breaking and entering was committed on the 800 block of Mellon Street. A young man coming home from work was called "F---ing F-ggot as he got out of his car to go into his apartment--later he went back out to his car to retrieve an item he had forgotten. That is when one of the seven African American males sitting on a porch across the street (at the Daria Apartment) yelled out to him "F---ing f-ggot." Upon hearing this he quickly went back inside into his secured building making sure the door was locked and made an urgent phone call to a friend. While on the phone he heard loud banging noises outside his apartment door---looked out through the peep hole he sees one of the males ramming his body into the front door, broke it open and placed a brick to prevent the door from closing.

Now frantic this young man calls 911 and waits for the police to arrive, while waiting he watched as the same male picks up a brick to throw it against his apartment door, yelling for him to come out because he was going to "f---ing kill him." At this point the victim makes another call to 911 to let them know the suspect was now in his building and trying to break down his door to get inside the apartment.

It took the cops 4-5 minutes to show after the first 911 call, they asked the victim questions, got descriptions then went out to find the suspects. Thirty minutes later the cops made four arrest but none were the direct guy who did the threatening. Two of the arrests were males the victim had seen earlier.

Zone 5 Public Safety Meeting Tuesday April 8 @ 7pm

Please plan to attend the monthly public safety meeting---Tuesday April 8, 2008 at 7 pm. The meeting is held at the UNION PROJECT located at the corner of Stanton and Negley.

We need your voice we need you there!

CAN BE DONE HERE!

Interesting concept that can be modified to help to transform our little corner of the Highland Park!

How money and policing are rebuilding East Hills
Sunday, February 10, 2008
By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Sandra Nelson and Elaine Pearson, two longtime East Hills residents, walk through a courtyard of the newly renovated townhouses. Many residents feel safer walking than they did before the restoration effort began.Diana Gray, a U.S. Housing and Urban Development official, visited the city's East Hills neighborhood two years ago and asked a boy there what he wanted to be when he grew up.

Doctor? Firefighter? Police officer?

"I can be a drug lookout," he said.

"That's illegal," she said. "Aren't you afraid of going to jail?"

"Everyone I know has been in jail," the boy said.

He was 8.

This is what has often passed for ambition in the three isolated East Hills subsidized-housing neighborhoods that hug the hill behind the abandoned site of the former East Hills Shopping Center.

Second East Hills, Third East Hills and Maple Ridge, all privately owned Section 8 communities, have long symbolized urban decay.

The low point may have been an August 2005 gang-related killing at a playground in Second East Hills.

But that crime also sparked a revolution of sorts, and some good things have been happening since.

A model $85 million effort coordinated by HUD, the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, city police and two private developers has been steadily improving life for this neighborhood, where 90 percent of the households are headed by single black women.

The East Hills Area Restoration Initiative has quietly renovated housing, cleaned out drug dealers, and provided some job and educational opportunities.

Crime has clearly declined in the past few years, due in large part to an effort by Victory Security, a private force whose officers are being trained by two ATF agents and the Pittsburgh police.

Other security firms have operated in East Hills over the years with questionable results. But this one is vetted by federal agents and works directly with them.

Their East Hills Intervention Team also includes probation officers, among them Ted Johnson, head of U.S. Probation and Pre-Trial Services, who has a personal stake in the future of East Hills in part because he lives nearby in Penn Hills.

"Lots of other projects start, and then when the agencies leave, everything returns to how it was," he said during a tour of the property. "This one, we go in, we stay there."

In addition to improved safety, which surveys showed was the top priority for residents, jobs are finally coming.

Wal-Mart said last month that it will break ground, probably in May, on the acres of forlorn asphalt where the shopping center once stood on land shared by Penn Hills, Wilkinsburg and the city.

Lowe's has also made a commitment to build.

Claudia Wells, a 59-year-old great-grandmother who has lived in the neighborhood since 2000 and is a member of the Second East Hills tenant council, calls the Wal-Mart promise "our economic angel."

"It was like a lost continent here," she said one day while caring for her grandson's two babies. "It's like night and day compared to how it was. We have the redevelopment for bricks and mortar. Now we're changing the mindset."

Her daughter, Monique Shorter, 35, who lives nearby with her own 14-year-old son, was visiting and helping to care for the babies when she got a call on her cell phone.

It was a friend happily telling her she'd qualified to move into Second East Hills, where rents are subsidized by HUD.

"People are excited to move up here," said Ms. Shorter, who earned her General Educational Development degree through an East Hills program, graduated from Empire Beauty School and now hopes to open a salon near the Wal-Mart site.

"East Hills is on its way up."

Transformation
The old institutional feel of the place is gone.

In Second East Hills, New York-based developer Telesis Corp. individualized the 326 units with new designs and bright colors.

It cost $44 million, but the neighborhood now looks more like a suburban development than a housing project.

"The physical condition has improved, so people have pride," said Sharon Fields, a community volunteer who lives with her 19-year-old son, a technical school student in the process of moving into his own apartment. "Before, it looked like a concentration camp. Now, it's pepped up."

Telesis also built an immaculate community center for meetings, after-school programs and domestic seminars.

The company intends to tear down the nearby Third East Hills co-op community of 140 units and rebuild them, too.

That effort had been stalled by a federal lawsuit filed by some residents who feel they are being forced out. But Patricia Baylock of CT Management, which supervises the Telesis properties, says she expects the project to get rolling within 30 days despite the suit.

Maple Ridge, an adjacent community of 91 high-rise units formerly known as First East Hills, has also undergone a facelift, this one by Boston-based Winn Companies.

"We're trying to put the neighbor back in the hood," said Herman Watson, the property manager. "This is a lost community."

The neighborhood still has the problems of subsidized housing anywhere -- absent fathers, scarce jobs, generations of welfare recipients.

What's more, there are concerns that the crackdown on crime has merely pushed it into neighboring communities.

Wilkinsburg has been actively involved in the initiative, but Penn Hills hasn't. So, federal authorities say, the criminals are being funneled into the Penn Hills neighborhoods adjacent to East Hills.

Howard Burton, the Penn Hills police chief, did not respond to a request for comment.

While shots-fired calls are down in the subsidized part of East Hills and no one has been killed since 2005, there were still four homicides nearby in the larger East Hills neighborhood last year.

In addition, the shuttered East Hills Elementary School also remains empty. There's talk of it becoming a business incubator, but so far nothing's happened.

"We have a long way to go," said Lillie Leonardi, the FBI community outreach specialist who brought the agencies together in 2005 at the request of former Sen. Rick Santorum. "We probably have at least three to five years [of commitment]."

Change is incremental here. This year's goal: to establish a day-care center.

Some residents have tried to make a difference on their own. In the summer, a group of older women set up a reading group for children while their mothers worked.

"We want people to know," said Ms. Wells, "that this is their community."

'Taming' the Wild West
Drive into Second East Hills and you can bet Lt. Randy Canella is watching you.

The gruff, leather-jacketed daylight shift supervisor for Victory, he takes his job so seriously that he monitors security cameras off-duty from his home computer in Bridgeville.

On the site, he's everywhere. During one recent meeting of agency heads, he sat in the back and listened but his eyes were fixed on the street outside.

He knows every car driving through and every person walking by.

And if he doesn't, he soon will. Like any good beat cop, his philosophy is to meet the people.

"We've built relationships," he said. "We had to work to gain respect, not just from residents but from other law enforcement."

During the meeting, he suddenly received a report of a man with a gun and tromped out into the snow with his troops. They quickly found the resident and patted him down. It was a false alarm -- he didn't have a gun and they let him go.

But this kind of scenario plays out daily.

Most of the trouble-makers aren't residents but boyfriends, some on probation, parole or pre-trial supervision, visiting young women in the units.

"A lot of these girls just don't understand that they should not be hanging around with seedy sorts," said resident Joyce Woods, 57.

It was worse before the anti-crime blitz. Cocaine and heroin customers, often white suburbanites from as far off as Slippery Rock, drove to East Hills to buy. An open market thrived, with dealers using the women to gain access to apartments so they could sell dope.

Pittsburgh officers answered calls, but there was no regular police presence.

"It was like the Wild West," said Ms. Gray, head of multi-family housing at HUD. "There was shooting daily. On the weekends you couldn't leave your apartment. There were elderly women whom I met who hadn't left their apartments in two years. When children went to the school bus, their mothers would walk around them to form a circle."

The new team approach to law enforcement now ensures that no one who doesn't belong here goes unnoticed.

Darnell Washington couldn't hide.

Indicted on federal drug charges in West Virginia, he was out on bond last summer when he started showing up in East Hills.

Police knew he had a suspended license, a violation of his supervised release, so when they spotted him driving around on July 2 the arrested him.

Mr. Washington, 20, is now serving two years in a federal prison in Oklahoma City.

The EHIT team, which posts pictures of wanted men in the security office and maintains a list of all those arrested (53 since May), has had to tackle the same suspects repeatedly because they keep coming back.

One August day, ATF supervisor Lou Weiers was driving out of the area when he saw two Victory officers trying to control a crowd.

The center of attention: Damon Johnson, 18, who was trying to fight with someone.

Agent Weiers and the guards took him into custody and removed a gun from him. He went to jail but got out on bond.

When he showed up at East Hills again in November, police tried to pull him over and chased him into Wilkinsburg. Officers found him carrying 223 stamp bags of heroin, according to an incident report.

"If he comes up here again," said Lt. Canella, "he's going to be stopped."

Zero tolerance
The law enforcement presence has emboldened some residents to provide information when before they might have looked the other way.

Last summer, for example, tipsters reported that Raymond Crumby, 35, an intimidating presence at 6-feet-5, 240 pounds, was dealing crack out of Maple Ridge. When Lt. Canella confronted him, according to a police report, Mr. Crumby said he was visiting a relative but couldn't give an address or name. Lt. Canella told him to leave and not come back.

But on Dec. 11, according to the report, he returned and Lt. Canella recognized him. City Officer Jeff DeSchon confronted him again, and again he said he was visiting a relative but couldn't give a name.

During the conversation, Mr. Crumby suddenly bolted and Officer DeSchon tackled him on Wilner Drive. Police and security said they found crack on him and took him to jail.

"They removed him quietly," said Mr. Watson, the property manager. "He had been up here and then one day he wasn't. They're pros. The word is out now: Don't come up here."

Not every resident is pleased with this zero-tolerance approach.

Sharon Fields, who attended the recent agency-head meeting, complains that security is heavy-handed. But she herself was arrested in October by Pittsburgh police.

According to an incident report, officers had approached a young man in a hoodie on a warm night because they thought he was suspicious. Ms. Fields started swearing at them about harassing the man, police said, and ended up spending 12 hours in jail on a disorderly conduct charge.

Some residents also complain about "shoddy" construction of the units and chafe at the regulations imposed by management.

But Ms. Baylock, of CT Management, says the complaints are the result of a lack of enforcement in years past. HUD also says it has an obligation to protect such a sizable investment of public money.

"I think that people don't understand that there are rules," said Ms. Baylock. "They don't understand that there are consequences for their actions when they haven't been enforced before."

It takes time to develop bonds in a place like this, Ms. Leonardi said, because people have made promises in the past and then disappeared. And that still happens.

Andrew Cheeseboro, the recently-hired social services director for CT, had talked excitedly about getting programs going but then suddenly quit two weeks ago after less than a month on the job.

Overall, however, residents seem pleased. A poll taken last year showed an increase in tenant satisfaction compared to 2006.

"It's definitely improving," said Ms. Woods, who is on disability. "If I feel melancholy and want to go for a walk at night, I feel safe. Truly, you can walk around in the evening, even in the early morning, and you feel safe."

Trust is building.

"I know people are reluctant because they hear 'FBI' and 'ATF' and they get nervous," said Ms. Wells. "But they saw that [the feds] all have the same heart and the same mission. You see the heart."

Torsten Ove can be reached at tove@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1510.
First published on February 10, 2008 at 12:00 am

Reminder! Meeting @ The Union Project

COMMUNITY MEETING – DEVELOPMENT IN EAST LIBERTY

Monday, MARCH 31,2008
6:30-8:30pm

The Union Project will host a Community Meeting to discuss the recent and upcoming residential and commercial development in the East Liberty area. This event will act as an open forum for community members to ask and answer questions about this important community change. Community organizations, partners and housing advocacy groups will be in attendance for this event to help answer question that community members may have. Attendees will aid in the creation for the discussion topics for the Monday Night Conversation Series held every Monday night in the month of April.

The free event will be held at the Union Project.

For more information contact hilary@unionproject.org or 412-363-4550 x 26.

HELP US "CLEAN UP" APRIL 19

The Great PA Cleanup and the Citizens Against Litter are once again encouraging folks to do a cleanup in their areas.

Cleanup day for Mellon and Jackson Streets is scheduled for Saturday, April 19th, from 9 am to Noon. Everyone please meet at the intersection of Mellon and Jackson.

Just come---bags and gloves will be provided.

Cleanup will cover the area between Hampton, N Euclid, Stanton, and Heths Run. The more people that participate the bigger area that gets cleaned up!

The plan is to leave all the trash at the same intersection (Mellon and Jackson) for the City to pick up.

This is a great opportunity to not only pick up trash, but get to know others in the neighborhood as well as to see what our part of the neighborhood looks like.

The City should pick up most everything, even tires and an effort will be made to recycle too.

Beware Always!

From an email sent through the Highland Park Community email list.

Just want to give everyone a heads up about an incident that occurred at my house in Morningside – which is only 6 houses in from the border with Highland Park, about a 3 block walk from the Union Project. Ultimately, nothing criminal occurred – but it was very suspicious.

Between 9:30 and 10:00 pm on Easter Sunday (3/23/08), I heard a loud knock at my front door. The man at the door introduced himself as “Oliver” and described himself as a neighbor whose car had broken down and he just needed some help – just $3 would do it. As if to prove his case, he pressed a drivers license up against the window of my front door (I never opened the door). When I said I couldn’t help him, but I’d be happy to call the police to come and help him out, he said “No, please don’t do that, there’s no need for that.” By the time I had gone to grab my phone and come back to the front door, he was gone. I called 911 to report the incident and an officer came by within 15 minutes or so, spotlighting my property first and then coming to the front door to talk with me before further patrolling the area.

“Oliver” was African American, medium to light complexion, in his 30’s or 40’s, with a mustache and wearing a gray hat (an “ivy cap” style hat according to my search online). I was not able to read his drivers license through my window. His obvious panic when I said I’d be happy to call the police to come help him was the most striking thing about the conversation

Very Disturbing Event

A Highland Park resident writes that this happened in the 5500 block of Wellesley Avenue:

Just wanted to let everyone know about a very disturbing event that
happened on Thursday. When I arrived home at around 5 pm, my neighbor had
just come out to scare off 4 young men who came up on my porch. (Perhaps
to urinate?) There were no signs of break-in. I had just missed them, but
my neighbor told me what the boys were wearing. I drove around the block
and saw them only a block away. A police car was in the neighborhood so I
pulled up and explained the situation and where I saw the young men. Just
a little while later four police cars had the four boys cuffed. On his way
home my husband stopped to ask the police about it (after I had phoned
him.) It turned out one of the boys had a gun.

Again, I haven't heard anything more about it, but I wanted to alert
everyone in the neighborhood.

Source: Highland Park Neighborhood Group Email list---to get on this list go to: Highland Park Community website.

Volunteers Needed to Pass Out Flyers!

Flyering for Community Meeting & Monday Evening Conversations: "Owning
Your Community"

We will need volunteers to pass out flyers throughout East Liberty to
local residents.There will be a community meeting on Monday, March 31st to preface a series called Monday Evening Conversations at the Union Project in East Liberty.

These are held as a platform for local residents to discuss important issues such as race and community ownership. This volunteer opportunity is extremely important to getting the community involved in an important educational events.

Please dress for the weather, as you will be outside.

Date: Saturday, March 22nd
Time: 12pm-2pm
Location: 801 N. Negley Ave, Pittsburgh. PA 15206

Here is a little blurb about The Union Project, if you don't already know:

The Union Project is located at 801 N. Negley Avenue at the corner of Stanton Avenue and is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing community space to connect, create, and celebrate. The Union Project brings Pittsburgh communities together through mission-based businesses and community events for youth and adults. The Union Project's businesses include stained glass restoration, a ceramics studio and co-op, office and events space rental, and Eat UP café and catering. The Union Project also provides a teaching environment that allows individuals with barriers to employment to attain specialized job skills, take pride in their work, and connect with the local community.

OBSERVE AND REPORT

We attended the monthly Zone 5 Public Safety Meeting Tuesday evening, March 11th---attendance was small. Libby and I were the only two from Highland Park. Fran E. came in later. Representatives from Patrick Dowd, Bill Peduto and the Mayor's office also attended.

After the usual order of business---a speaker from the Center for Victims of Violent Crimes spoke then Commander Brackney. The Commander told us there has been "a serious decrease in crime in Zone 5" since last year." She attributes this decline to more people reporting and calling 911. She also told us because of her connections in other cities, like New York and Chicago---she gets from them advice on programs and ideas to initiate in our own community.

Someone asked the Commander what she thought of the Friendship neighborhood using private security guards. Brackney suggested first to start a neighborhood walking group to see what happens. Not a big group, just get four to five people together, walk your blocks and she offered

"...if you get a walking group together, I will have a beat officer walk with you two times a week. Not forever but for a while..."

(Let's get this idea started on our block soon! We can be first to get an officer to walk with us. Let's try this out next week? Ok?)

The Commander also advised everyone that if you are going to be away from your home for any extended time to call Zone 5 so a 911 Alert can be placed on your house.

Later in the meeting, Cmdr. Brackney introduced two narcotic officers to the group. The officers reported that over the last two months seven arrests were made at the pay phone in front of Negley Drugstore at the corner of Negley and Stanton Avenues. These were drug arrests and according to the officers are related to activities on Portland and Mellon Street.

Libby asked the officers if anything was being done about the suspicious activities in the 900 block of Portland. She was told "it's in the works."

Cmdr. Brackney says to email her with any concerns you have in your neighborhood. And when doing so to be as detailed as possible. Addresses with house numbers, time of day, type of car, etc.

So...that is pretty much the extent of this Zone 5 Public Safety meeting.

Update from Councilman Patrick Dowd

This is from Elaine at Councilman Dowd's office concerning the idea of parking permits:

There are two minimums any permit parking area must meet: it must
include 10 block faces and 100 spaces, and it must result in the
issuance of at least 100 permits.

The first step in the process would be for a resident of the area to
call the administrator (Richard Meritzer -- 412.255.2102) and ask to be
put on the consideration list. Once the neighborhood comes up for
consideration, Mr. Meritzer will go out and do an evaluation.

The bad news: there is currently a 5 year waiting list to be added to
the program. It is possible, however, that if there is a reasonably
contiguous area already on the list, you could add yourselves to that
application. The only area that really comes close right now is the
triangle between Friendship, Negley, and Baum. Mr. Meritzer would be the
one to determine if the streets in consideration are reasonably
contiguous.

Community Meeting March 31, 2007

From The Union Project

COMMUNITY MEETING – DEVELOPMENT IN EAST LIBERTY - MAR. 31
Monday, March 31st, from 6:30-8:30pm the Union Project will host a Community Meeting to discuss the recent and upcoming residential and commercial development in the East Liberty area. This event will act as an open forum for community members to ask and answer questions about this important community change. Community organizations, partners and housing advocacy groups will be in attendance for this event to help answer question that community members may have. Attendees will aid in the creation for the discussion topics for the Monday Night Conversation Series held every Monday night in the month of April. The free event will be held at the Union Project. For more information contact hilary@unionproject.org or 412-363-4550 x 26.

Roxanna Way (800 block)

Elaine Zelmanov emailed me yesterday, she's the Chief of Staff for Councilman Patrick Dowd, Pittsburgh City Council District 7. Elaine told me she put in a request to get Roxanna Way paved this year. Hopefully we won't have to buy a load of slag to combat the holes and divots caused by all this rain, snow and years of driving up and down the alley. I'll keep you posted when I get more information.

311

Don't forget the City of Pittsburgh has a 3-1-1 line. Please call 311 for any requests, complaints, suggestions or services you may need from the city of Pittsburgh. It is a great way to get your voice heard.

It is a NEW Day in the neighborhood!

Ok friends it's been a long time since I've updated this blog but I am back now! I will try to be better about updating this site. I've let it lag a bit because it was getting frustrating ranting about the same issues all the time. But in the last couple of months we've gotten to know more of our neighbors and there seem to be a keen interest in helping to make this little quadrant of Highland Park a nicer and safer place for all.


Check out this article from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about security cameras .

City eyes widened security camera coverage
Hires N.C. company to help buy system, develop a timetable
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The city of Pittsburgh has taken a step toward deploying many more security cameras by hiring a North Carolina firm to guide it through the surveillance world and setting a six-month timetable to pick a system.

N.W. Getz and Associates, of Charlotte, N.C., will be the city's sherpa through the high-tech world of surveillance cameras, the computer networks that guide them and the rules that prevent their abuse. By early June, the firm and the city expect to have chosen a company to build a system backbone and put in enough cameras to watch the port facilities and nearby areas.

Then comes a phased deployment that starts with port facilities and the integration of existing public and private camera systems. It then expands into neighborhood business districts and the creation of mobile surveillance systems for temporary deployment to crime hot spots, city Public Safety Director Michael Huss said yesterday.

"We know that it's not the end-all, but it's another tool our police can use to make our city safer," he said.

The city's contract with N.W. Getz started Dec. 20, and runs through May. The firm will get $36,832, or slightly more than 1 percent of the $3.45 million the city expects to spend on the initial phase of its effort.

The firm was picked by an internal city committee after 21 companies responded to a request for information on their experience in the security camera industry. N.W. Getz has served as a consultant to the University of Pittsburgh campus police and to Heinz Field, as well as other sports venues and developments, and Mr. Huss said it got good reviews from its clients.

By late February, the firm and city expect to release a request for proposals from camera firms. A series of evaluations and interviews will follow. By May 28, the city plans to notify the winning firm, and then start negotiating the details of a contract.

The city's initial plan called for integrating "several hundred" cameras already owned by governments and businesses into one, centrally-monitored system. Atop that technological backbone would sit several dozen new cameras on bridges, tall buildings and in Point State Park. License plate reading devices and gunshot-detection systems might also be part of the first phase.

In a later phase, the city would spread cameras over six-square-block sectors in high-crime areas, and create a movable system that could follow crime shifts from neighborhood to neighborhood, Mr. Huss said. Funding for that phase hasn't been identified.

The initial focus on port areas is driven by the source of the available money: a $2.59 million Department of Homeland Security grant for port security, plus $862,000 in city matching funds.

"In guarding the port, we're actually covering our major corridors and routes," said Mr. Huss. Port security, he noted, can be construed to include the bridges that carry most of the traffic into and out of Downtown.

"We do want to eventually secure additional funding and get it out in our neighborhoods," he said. That, of course, is where privacy concerns could become most acute.

"These cameras are going to be in public areas, and in public areas there's not a high expectation of privacy," he said. Avoiding misuse is "going to be something that we're always going to have to monitor."

Rich Lord can be reached at rlord@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1542.
First published on January 1, 2008 at 12:00 am

Also a reminder the next monthly Zone 5 Public Safety Meeting is March 11th at 7:00 p.m. It's held at the Union Project

The Union Project is located on the corner of Stanton and Negley.

We'll see you there!