Security Cameras Planned for All Rec Centers, Playgrounds
Surveillance cameras, along with other equipment designed to promote safety, are scheduled to be installed at more than a dozen recreation centers and playgrounds in Northwest Philadelphia as part of a new City Council-funded program.
The multi-million dollar initiative, to be formally announced Wednesday, follows last summer’s spate of violent incidents at city parks and recreation centers.
“We need reliably safe places for young people to congregate and this is just another step,” said Joseph Corrigan, spokesperson for Eighth District Councilwoman Cindy Bass, who chairs Council’s Committee on Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs.
Bass and the nine other district council members have agreed to earmark one-tenth of their district capital dollars for the effort in each of the next three years. The cameras, she says, will be for recording only:
“Hopefully at some point we’ll be able to get live monitoring. I don’t believe that that’s the system that they’ll have in place for right now.”
Fun-fact: The surveillance system will include a high-pitch noise emitter to drive off night-time loiterers.
