News

March 6, 2008

Proposals sought for city surveillance system

By Jerry Lynott jlynott@timesleader.com
Business Writer
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WILKES-BARRE – The clock is ticking to submit proposals by March 19 for a 500-camera surveillance system throughout the city.

Wire Free Wilkes-Barre, the joint non-profit organization made up of the city, Luzerne County, Wilkes University and King’s College, issued a request for information Wednesday for the setup and maintenance of the system that will be built on the existing wireless Internet network.

It is the same system the city wants to build with $2.5 million in gambling revenues to be awarded locally through the state Department of Community and Economic Development this month.

If it gets built, it also will be one of four systems studied by the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute under a Department of Justice grant.

Deputy city administrator Marie McCormick said the request was issued in anticipation of the city receiving the funding, although the revenue awards will not be announced for at least another week.

“We sometimes do that to move things along,” she said, adding the issuance of the request does not mean the project will be awarded.

The system would connect to the video surveillance command center at city police headquarters. The center has 10 monitors that show real-time video from several cameras installed in the South Main and Washington Street areas. The center would be expanded and more monitors added under the citywide surveillance system, McCormick said.

Wire Free Wilkes-Barre, which will operate the command center in conjunction with the police department, looks at the system as a means to “enhance public safety, deter crime, and act as a force multiplier for the police department,” according to the request posted on the organization’s Web site.

The system will use vandal-resistant and weatherproof cameras that will provide high-resolution color images with the capability of identifying license plates, people and street locations, according to the request.

They will be located in all city parks, in areas surrounding city schools and the downtown. In addition, the cameras must be positioned to view streams and creeks, the Susquehanna River and the River Commons. The system also must be able to be viewed remotely using the Internet.

The system would be included with those the Urban Institute is studying in Baltimore, Chicago and Hyattsville, Md., said Nancy LaVigne, a senior research associate with the institute.

To explain the purpose of the study, LaVigne provided a transcript of a workshop held on Dec. 17 by the Department of Homeland Security on developing best practices for camera surveillance systems. The institute received a grant for the study through the Justice Department’s Office of Community-Oriented Policing Services.

To date much of the research on camera surveillance systems comes from the United Kingdom, but that is limited to how it applies to issues in the United States, LaVigne said.

“We’re interested in looking at a mix of large and small jurisdictions. We think that will provide more information for the field,” she said. “We will be documenting the decision-making processes behind cameras, what people hope to gain from camera implementation and use, and certainly look at the impact, as well.”

Jerry Lynott, a Times Leader business writer, can be contacted at 570-829-7237.

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