Editorial: New cameras could be a real crime fighter

It’s not uncommon to see one of the high-tech, egg-shaped security cameras hanging from… It’s not uncommon to see one of the high-tech, egg-shaped security cameras hanging from various buildings while walking around Pitt’s campus. Last week, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl announced that some Pittsburgh neighborhoods and the city’s riverfronts will be outfitted with similar devices.

Ravenstahl said the installation of these cameras will begin within months. The cameras are aimed at deterring crime in troubled neighborhoods, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. They’re also intended to prevent potential terrorist activity.

In addition to the 120 exiting cameras in Downtown Pittsburgh, the city wants to put 32 new cameras on bridges plus 20 to 80 more in neighborhoods. One or two neighborhoods in each of the city’s six police zones are supposed to get cameras this year.

As a precautionary measure, all these new electronic eyes are bound to diminish criminal acts. Keeping an eye on crime is a 24/7 job, and these new cameras will certainly aid the city’s police department. Police officers are, after all, limited in their ability to patrol the streets. There’s simply not enough officers to keep watch everywhere all the time. But while the police keep to their beats, the cameras will oversee areas where no one’s standing guard.

‘ Surveillance cameras keeping watch could also free up officers, should they need to respond to an emergency or leave the area they’re patrolling. In this way the area or street they were watching wouldn’t be left unchecked.

Even if criminals aren’t dissuaded by the cameras’ presence, the added surveillance will make catching perpetrators easier. While there isn’t much hard data available on the cameras’ effectiveness, they’ve proven useful in some cities.

Denver’s new camera system, for example, is a success. In an effort to quickly bolster security for the Democratic National Convention last year, Denver installed a 60-camera system. Crime decreased anywhere from 30 to 45 percent in the areas with the newly established cameras, according to a lieutenant in the Denver police department.’

Of the initial $4.1 million invested in the venture, the Department of Homeland Security is paying $2.59 million toward cameras that will guard the city’s ports against terrorism. Considering its demographics, Pittsburgh doesn’t seem like the most likely terrorist target. Yet, there’s no harm in reinforcing security and keeping the better-safe-than-sorry mentality afloat.

Still, the usefulness of these cameras isn’t limited to large-scale crimes like terrorist activities and homicides. Sure, they’re to be built with serious crimes in mind, but these cameras could be useful’ when it comes to catching lesser offenses. If rioters, for example, know they’ll be under watch, perhaps they’ll be more inclined to think twice before getting too out of control.

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