CelPlan / Wi4Net awarded Long Beach contract to help fight crime

June 23rd, 2006 - LONG BEACH — Troublemakers on Pine Avenue be warned. The city is gearing up to install 17 surveillance cameras from Shoreline Drive to Sixth Street to monitor the historic downtown entertainment, dining and shopping district. Digital cameras at nine intersections will monitor public access areas for signs of trouble beginning in late July, with police and prosecutors using those images, stored on computer hard drives, for potential criminal proceedings. Workers will first place remote-controlled cameras, which have the ability to rotate and zoom, at Shoreline Drive and Pine Avenue. From there, cameras will be placed on Pine Avenue at Seaside Avenue, Ocean Boulevard, and First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth streets, said Long Beach Police Sgt. David Cannan. All cameras are expected to be installed by October and will be accompanied by signs notifying people of their presence. Sworn officers aided by police cadets will monitor the cameras from police headquarters downtown and the city is considering technology blocking cameras from peering, for example, into the windows of area apartments, Cannan said. "None of it will be directed at any private residences or private property," Cannan said. "This is meant (strictly) for people walking on public access areas." Similar programs have been established in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City and are widely used throughout England. In Los Angeles, cameras along Hollywood Boulevard, established last year, have led to a decrease in vice, property and violent crimes and even aided police in the arrest of a man who stabbed another man during a dispute inside a fast-food restaurant, said Kerry Morrison, executive director of the Hollywood Entertainment District. "Crimes have really dried up around the cameras," Morrison said. Los Angeles is currently expanding the program east and west on Hollywood Boulevard and onto surrounding streets. In August 2005, the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency allocated $400,000 to create the video system's infrastructure and CelPlan Technologies of Virginia was picked to implement the project. The program is expected to cost about $200,000 annually in maintenance, personnel and electricity, and the Downtown Long Beach Associates, charged with marketing, cleaning and safety for the area, pledged a one-time contribution of $75,000 for operational costs. In recent years, as Pine Avenue has re-emerged as an entertainment destination with the addition of new restaurants, bars and other venues, the area has also seen an increase in unwanted disturbances punctuated with last summer's shooting death of a 24-year-old Long Beach man in the 200 block of Pine. Kraig Kojian, executive director of the DLBA, said the addition of cameras will aid police in their effort to keep things calm. "It's a good resource to have in an area that's seeing much more (recreational) activity than years past," Kojian said. "I think it becomes a strong tool for the police department and prosecutor's office."