LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Within a few weeks, the closed-circuit TV cameras affixed to the exterior of two Lancaster housing projects will click on.
And a new era in crimefighting will begin.
For more than a year, the Lancaster Community Safety Coalition has been operating and monitoring a handful of the Bosch security cameras around town, which have resulted in numerous arrests.
Now, nearing completion of a city-wide fiber-optic cable network and armed with $1 million in grant money, the video surveillance initiative is about ready for prime time.
The four cameras at Farnum Street East and Church Street Towers will be among some 70 that could be deployed around the city in the next few years. Coalition officials initially worried that the program would be met with civil liberties complaints, but those concerns have been drowned out by the clamor of city residents who want cameras on their street.
That makes coalition members slightly nervous; cameras, they say, are not solutions to the city's crime problem in and of themselves. "It's got to be part of a package," said Robert Schellhamer, director of the city Housing Authority and a member of the Community Safety Coalition.
But hand in hand with stepped-up neighborhood involvement in the fight against crime, coupled with the coalition's "safety by design" initiative, the cameras indeed are likely to make the city feel like, and be, a safer place.
Early successes
The first "public" camera went up in 2002 at North Lime and East King streets, part of what Lancaster Alliance director Jack Howell called an "experiment." Since then, cameras have been placed inside city housing authority projects, and outside the coalition's offices in the UGI Building on Conestoga Street.
The video feed from the cameras is taped and monitored inside the coalition offices. And the cameras have paid dividends; the camera outside the UGI building has caught drug transactions in and around Farnum Park, and led to arrests for prostitution and in a hit-and-run case.
In June 2002 a camera inside Farnum Street East captured images of Charles Ernest D'Orazio, who beat, strangled and stabbed a man inside the complex, nearly killing him. The pictures helped convict D'Orazio, who was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison for the attack.
The cameras on the outside of Farnum Street East and Church Street Towers were thought to be the logical next step, said Schellhamer, as the Housing Authority is already a major stockholder in the project.
"We have 259 apartments filled with elderly and disabled residents," said Schellhamer. "It seemed natural."
The authority is dealing with some technical glitches in trying to get the cameras installed, but once operational, "We will have an extraordinary view of much of the South Duke Street corridor," said Schellhamer.
He is still in the process of talking to local businesses, churches and residents who might wind up on film; he not only hopes they won't mind, he hopes they buy into the concept: "We need other major stakeholders."
Indeed, while the $1 million grant, announced last week, will permit the coalition to accelerate its schedule and roll out more cameras in the next year, the high-tech devices, which can see in the dark and capture the clear image of a license plate up to two blocks away, won't be given away for free. They are likely to cost $3,000 to $5,000 apiece; the coalition anticipates that interested businesses might partner with residents to foot the bill.
Provided by Bosch Security Systems, headquartered in Greenfield Corporate Center, the pan-tilt-zoom cameras are to be "piggybacked" on the fiber-optic network installed by the city to control its traffic signals. Witmer said the network, which will extend through most of the city, should be completed by late December or early January.
The grant money will permit the coalition to add staff so that the cameras, once added to the system, may be monitored 24/7. Infractions caught on camera will be brought immediately to the attention of local police, who themselves will have the ability to monitor some of the video feeds. And the action will be preserved on tape, which can then be used as evidence during criminal trials.
A line is forming
Unsurprisingly, there is considerable demand for the cameras. Residents in northeast Lancaster have expressed interest; Ganse Apothecary, 355 W. King St., may get one; and residents in the area of the James Street Improvement District in northwest Lancaster are seeking up to 13 cameras in their neighborhood.
"We have a lot of people contacting us," asking for cameras, Schellhamer said. Coalition members are enthusiastic about the response, but a little nervous, as well.
"We remain adamant that serving an area does not solely include cameras," Schellhamer said.
That's not to say the coalition will refuse anyone a camera who wants it and can pay for it; however, officials say, a camera alone is unlikely to prevent crimes. If it can be utilized as part of an overall strategy, it will be a more effective tool; if in addition to installing a camera, new lighting can be installed, shrubbery trimmed so that visibility might improve, it can create an atmosphere whereby criminals aren't merely caught on tape, they're dissuaded from committing a crime in the first place.
The overall strategy is one the Community Safety Coalition may wind up "exporting" to other county municipalities; already, coalition officials have met with Manheim Borough officials to discuss "safety by design" and the possibility of cameras somewhere down the road.
"Our services deployed in the city will ultimately help the county," said Witmer. "That's something the county commissioners wanted to see happen."
"There is a lot more we can do."
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