Tyrone Borough Manager Sharon Dannaway discussed with council at last evening\u2019s borough work session for the month of October, the possibility of attaining surveillance cameras for the downtown area.
\n According to Dannaway, she and Tyrone Borough Chief of Police Joe Beachem have talked about the need for surveillance cameras, on a number of occasions, due to the vandalism and other disturbances that occur yearly downtown.
\n Council discussed the option and asked Beachem to acquire more information about the cameras, along with prices that would include the standard and stationary surveillance cameras, rotating cameras, and wireless cameras.
\n Councilperson Steve Hanzir thought that a wireless system would be ideal if the borough pursued the surveillance camera option, because wireless cameras could be moved more often from vandals and easy detection.
\n Beachem informed council that from what he has learned thus far, wireless surveillance camera systems have a \u201csignificant price increase.\u201d He said that a stationary eight camera system typically costs between $3,000 to $4,000, compared to one wireless camera he looked at that held a price tag of $14,000.
\n Mayor Jim Kilmartin said that he thinks surveillance cameras would be \u201cgood to look into.\u201d As for how the borough would pay for the cameras if council approved the option, he cited that grants were always a possibility.
\n Beachem could also include the monies needed in the police department\u2019s 2009 fiscal year budget, but he will also be looking for grants.
\n \u201cWe have to weigh out whether it\u2019s going to be worth it or not,\u201d said Kilmartin. \u201cWe\u2019re limited with police force, so we can\u2019t have police in the downtown all the time – we need to have police throughout the community.\u201d
\n Kilmartin also stated that \u201cthe downtown is a higher attracting area for violations, vandalism, and other incidents,\u201d so he hopes that by looking into surveillance cameras it will deter the activity that is prevalent.
\n Beachem said that there has been a lot of vandalism that has occurred at the City Hotel Park through the years, along with many disturbances downtown, whether it be fights or similar incidents. He thinks that the cameras would be useful in other ways also.
\n \u201cYou could actually protect some of the businesses that have been vulnerable to robberies in the past, like the pharmacies and the Choice store,\u201d stated Beachem. \u201cCrime prevention is probably the number one reason that we\u2019re looking at this, but ultimately it\u2019ll be council\u2019s decision on whether they want to go with it or not.\u201d
\n He added, \u201cIt\u2019s definitely worth looking into, as long as it\u2019s not cost prohibitive – just strictly from a prevention side.\u201d
\n Beachem told council that he researched State College\u2019s downtown surveillance camera system and was told that there were some people who protested the installation of the cameras, particularly college students, saying that the public viewing cameras were an invasion of privacy.
\n He doesn\u2019t think that would be an issue in Tyrone Borough.
\n \u201cIt would be focused strictly on public areas and wouldn\u2019t be used to target any specific individual,\u201d added Beachem. \u201cThere are restrictions, and if we would implement something like this, then we would probably try to implement a policy that\u2019s even a little more restrictive than it has to be.\u201d
\n He continued, \u201cWe\u2019d want people to understand that we are in no way, shape, or form trying to pry into everybody\u2019s private life. This would be strictly for public protection and crime prevention.\u201d
\n Beachem plans to gather enough information by next Monday to present to council different surveillance camera options and prices at its October regular meeting. Council would then decide whether or not to pursue further the purchasing of the cameras.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tyrone Borough Manager Sharon Dannaway discussed with council at last evening\u2019s borough work session for the month of October, the possibility of attaining surveillance cameras for the downtown area. According to Dannaway, she and Tyrone Borough Chief of Police Joe Beachem have talked about the need for surveillance cameras, on a number of occasions, due […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area","category-excerpts-from-the-tyrone-daily-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}