Allegheny County to install police surveillance cameras
Chances are good you will be seen on a police surveillance camera if you drive on parts of Freeport Road this fall — and even sooner if you visit public housing in Harrison.
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said the projects use federal and state grants to fight crime. Both surveillance systems will help police find fugitives.
The county obtained about $500,000 in federal grants and local matching money to install two dozen surveillance cameras along parts of Freeport Road from Aspinwall to Tarentum.
The Allegheny County Public Housing Authority is separately using about $110,000 in state money to install two dozen surveillance cameras in the Sheldon Park public housing development in the Natrona Heights section of Harrison.
Both sets of digital cameras will allow police to watch the images on laptops in their patrol cars. They will be linked to Allegheny County 911.
Although the cameras along Freeport Road probably won't be installed until the end of summer, the county housing authority started to install its cameras last week.
The housing authority used its electricians and hired a furloughed man to install them to save money.
"They will finish up this week," housing authority police Chief Mike Vogel said.
Some of the housing authority's cameras can be remotely moved and refocused to get a better image of a speeding car's license plate.
The housing authority has installed cameras at some of its locations elsewhere in the county, but Sheldon Park will mark its first use of wireless digital cameras.
In a separate interview, Zappala said he has long wanted the cameras for this part of the county.
Soon after the September 2010 shooting death of Richard Daieshon "Smoke" Covington, 28, of East Liberty in Sheldon Park, Zappala went there to meet with Vogel, Harrison police Chief Mike Klein and Tarentum police Chief Bill Vakulick.
The chiefs all welcomed the cameras.
"When there's a bank robbery or a shooting in Pittsburgh or up here, we will be able to look for the car," Zappala said.
Zappala wants facial recognition software to be added to both sets of cameras.
The grants were obtained by John Hudson, a security consultant for the county, Zappala said. Hudson, 45, of Beaver, said he learned the science as an agent for the Secret Service.
Hudson is developing the plan for the wireless camera network that will cover an area from Sharpsburg to Tarentum and cross the Tarentum Bridge into New Kensington and Arnold.
New Kensington and Arnold have surveillance cameras, but it's unknown if the systems will be compatible.
The camera system will be bought and installed using money from the Port of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and federal Homeland Security.
Sharpsburg is contributing about $60,000 and so are most of the other communities.
