From the Morning Call
With the opening of PPL Center, much attention has been paid to the core of Allentown’s central business district and to ensuring that visitors feel safe at events downtown.
But residents on the outskirts of that area have not been forgotten, Allentown officials said Thursday, as they rolled out an initiative to install seven surveillance cameras in more residential portions of Center City.
Flanked by Bill Spence, chairman, president and CEO of PPL, and by J.B. Reilly, president of City Center Investment Corp., at a downtown news conference, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski said the cameras would be funded by a public-private partnership that has contributed $100,000 to the city.
The cameras, which produce high-definition video, will be installed in the city’s Old Allentown neighborhood at seven intersections: 11th and Linden streets, 12th and Linden streets, 10th and Turner streets, 11th and Turner streets, 12th and Turner streets, 10th and Chew streets, and Eighth and Gordon streets.
The additions will bring the city’s number of cameras to 151, Pawlowski said.
The city has been using security cameras since 2007, but the newer cameras are the first to record high-definition video capable of reading a license plate nearly two blocks away. Software allows investigators to search by the data being recorded, such as skimming videos to look for a particular color of car.
The installation of the new cameras will be done by Communication Systems Inc., an Upper Macungie Township company that has installed the other cameras for the city.