November 19, 2007
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania tests out its law enforcement surveillance camera system
At the beginning, video surveillance systems for public law enforcement were limited to large cities like New York and Chicago. But things are changing. In medium-sized cities and towns across America, surveillance systems are helping law enforcement officials to capture criminals, monitor weather conditions and more. Now Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, once the location of Babe Ruth’s record-breaking home run, has introduced its own video surveillance system. It may not be a big city, but approximately 42,500 people call it home, and according to local law enforcement, that’s big enough to warrant an advanced surveillance system like Chicago’s.
So far, there are ten cameras strategically placed in downtown Wilkes Barre and in problem neighborhoods. They’re meant to help police record car license plate numbers, identify perpetrators and even track criminals in cars as they travel through the city. The videos play on large flat-screen monitors in the command center of police headquarters so that police may be dispatched as quickly as possible when a conflict or crime takes place. Eventually, police officers will be equipped with wireless laptop computers with which they can watch streaming surveillance footage.
But the cameras aren’t just meant to bring in drug dealers, thieves, murders and other unsavory characters. The city of Wilkes-Barre will also place several cameras on bridges in order to monitor the water levels of (name) river, which flows through town and occasionally threatens to flood. And while they’ve started with ten cameras, Wilkes-Barre’s Finest hope to eventually increase the number of cameras to 130. The Wilkes-Barre police department modeled its $900,000 dollar system after Chicago’s.
Read more about Wilkes-Barre’s new surveillance system.
Posted by Jennifer on November 19, 2007 11:44 PM | Comments (0)
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