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!
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