Pitt hopes cameras will bolster security

Those little black domes fixed on the ceilings in areas around campus aren’t some kind of… Those little black domes fixed on the ceilings in areas around campus aren’t some kind of newfangled light fixture.

They’re security cameras, and Tim Delaney, Pitt’s police chief, wants you to know that they are there for the safety of the students.

“Is it Big Brother or public safety?” asked Delaney.

Delaney said the cameras are being installed to survey certain areas since the police can’t always be there and to monitor activity in heavily traveled parts of campus or areas where crime has become a problem.

Delaney said the plan is modeled after the surveillance systems of other colleges and universities, specifically the University of Pennsylvania.

There are approximately 250 cameras currently installed on campus. About 80 percent of the cameras are indoors, primarily in lobbies, stairwells, elevator vestibules and loading docks, according to Josh Cochran, logistics coordinator for the Pitt police.

“We want people to know that they’re there,” Cochran said. “It’s not our intent to secretly – survey campus.”

“We don’t have anything concealed,” he added. “Visibility is a big deterrent [to crime].”

Pitt police are constantly working to install new cameras to make sure all areas are adequately surveyed.

“Every month we do four or five different sites,” Cochran said. “By the end of June, we will probably break 300 [cameras], indoor and outdoor.”

Cameras are visible to the naked eye, although it may not be immediately evident that they are cameras. The small black domes on the ceilings in buildings are cameras. They are also visible on the tops of the poles that have emergency phones, and there are a few attached to buildings, street lamps or rooftops.

There is a communications center in the Pitt police station, but they are not constantly monitoring all the cameras. In areas such as the Petersen Events Center and Biomedical Science Tower 3, however, the cameras are always watched.

Cameras were installed in the Baierl Recreation Center to survey the area where people store their belongings while they use the facility.

“It’s a deterrent for theft. It’s a deterrent for crime,” Delaney said.

Delaney said that they plan to install cameras on the Sennott Square building to monitor areas of Forbes Avenue and Bouquet Street.

“It’s more efficient policing,” Delaney said.

“This has helped us eliminate hours, if not days, of investigative effort,” Delaney said.

The digital feed from the cameras is saved on a hard drive for 28 days and is searchable by time and date, which facilitates investigations of areas where cameras are installed.

He also said that the cameras are efficient.

“Cameras don’t get tired. We don’t pay overtime. They don’t get sick,” he said.

Delaney said that Pitt utilizes the same security system as Heinz Field.

“What I’m trying to do with Pitt is stay with the security standard,” Delaney said.

Delaney also said that the cameras make the officers aware of more than just criminal activity.

“It doesn’t have to be crime. It can be vehicular or pedestrian movement,” he said.

Currently, the only dorms that have “virtual patrol” are Pennsylvania Hall and McCormick Hall.

Students responded differently to the presence of these security cameras.

“That kind of scares me,” said student Jessica Cole.

Student Ben Weaver disagrees.

“Obviously, there are some pros and cons to it – it makes me feel safer about what’s going on,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me.”

Both Cochran and Delaney stressed that the cameras are installed for matters of public safety.

“The point I’m really trying to enforce is that this is not Big Brother,” Delaney said.