WHEELING - Five wireless cameras are being installed on utility poles in the city of Wheeling and will be used by the police department to potentially catch criminals in the act.
But Chief Robert Matheny hopes the cameras will also serve as a deterrent to crime.
"It will be a great tool. ... Maybe they'll think twice," Matheny said of criminals.
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Photo by Shelley Hanson
Staley Communications worker John Sowinski installs a wireless camera Monday for the police department at 14th and Market streets in downtown Wheeling. It and four others will begin recording next week or the week after.
The cameras were made possible by a $70,000 federal Justice Assistance Grant secured by the police department and Ohio County Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Lou Vargo, said police Sgt. Dwayne Taylor. Screens will be installed in Matheny's office and inside the main police headquarters for officers to monitor. Taylor expects the cameras to start recording sometime next week or the week after.
Vargo said his office already has installed cameras atop the Mull Center in downtown Wheeling, a radio tower in Bethlehem and another radio tower at The Highlands. The cameras can be viewed by the EMA, Wheeling police, the sheriff's department and county Administrator Greg Stewart, Vargo noted.
"From the Bethlehem tower camera ... you can watch a football game on the Island," Vargo said of Wheeling Island stadium, as an example of the camera's ability to zoom into a location.
Matheny noted his officers won't watch the monitors every minute, but he believes the cameras will be helpful when a call comes from a certain area. For example, the cameras could be used to zoom in to the scene of a fight. When officers are driving to a scene, the crowd often disperses quickly. The cameras, however, may help officers identify those involved as the cruisers are on the way to the scene.
On Monday, a worker with Staley Communications of Wheeling was installing two of the cameras downtown. One currently is located at 14th and Market streets, and another was to be installed at 16th and Main streets. The other three were expected to be installed Tuesday, pending weather conditions, said Staley worker John Sowinski. Matheny noted the cameras likely won't stay in one place, but periodically will be moved to different areas of the city. The cameras will constantly be digitally recording, and still photos can be taken from those recordings.
Taylor conceded some folks may not like the cameras, but he noted the devices are not meant for "spying" on people.
"For us it will be used as a reactive tool (rather) than to spy on people in an area," Taylor said, noting most cities already are home to surveillance cameras attached to office buildings and businesses.
In addition to zooming in, the police cameras can move in all directions. The pictures also are expected to be high quality.
Vargo said his agency also secured a separate $267,000 grant to install 14 more cameras to monitor the Ohio River in Ohio County. He noted it would take several months for the cameras to be installed on various buildings and towers. Some will be at water level, he added.