By Gina Morton
SUNBURY — City police are on the lookout for where to place the lookouts.
Officers are staking out sites to place the anticipated 20 wireless surveillance cameras that are intended to prevent crime in Sunbury.
While funding has not been received for the cameras, planning is under way for their arrival, Sunbury Police Chief Stephen Mazzeo said.
In September, U.S. Rep. Chris Carney, D-10 of Dimock, announced Sunbury would receive a $200,000 grant for the purchase of the cameras, software and a five-year maintenance program and support services.
At that time, Mazzeo said plans were to position the cameras on Market, Front and North Fourth streets, with the possibility of other areas in the city should criminal activity dictate.
Those sites are still being finalized, he said Friday.
“At this point we’re examining different potential locations based on pedestrian traffic, vehicle traffic and known areas of prior contact of pedestrians and criminals,” he said.
Carney spokesman Josh Drobnyk on Friday said the final U.S. House appropriations bill was approved in December and that distribution of funds takes usually several months. He did not have specific details on how long it would take city police to receive the grant.
Mazzeo also did not know when the funding would arrive.
“Not a clue,” he said, “but at least at this point we’re scouting placement locations and we’ll wait.”
Additional cameras will be located in and around Stroh Alley and the Edison Plaza in the 400 block of Market Street, paid for through federal Community Development Block Grants and stimulus money.
A $50,000 grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development will be used to install computers in Sunbury police cars to allow officers to view surveillance footage and file police reports while on patrol, rather than having to return to the station.
This allows officers to spend more time on patrol.
The same grant will be used to install cameras on several police cars, a technology in use by the Pennsylvania state police and in Shamokin Dam.
In addition to Sunbury’s surveillance video being linked to computers in police cars, it will also be on the city’s Web site.
