Police Surveillance Cameras Taking A Snooze

Commit a crime in Philadelphia and chances are you were seen by a police surveillance camera. But sadly for police followup,  chances are 3 to 1 the camera wasn’t working.

According to City Controller Alan Butkovitz, a followup audit of Philadelphia’s police surveillance cameras found only 32% of the sampled cameras were functioning properly.

The followup audit included a sample of 31 installed cameras to review the quality, performance and functionality.  Following the release of the Controller’s initial surveillance camera audit last June, it was projected that 90% of the cameras would be working by September 2012.

“This means that at any given time when crime is occurring around our city, only a third of the cameras are able to capture criminal activity,” said Butkovitz.

The Controller’s observations of the video footage captured by the non-fully functioning cameras included the following: condensation and water in camera domes and on the lens, making it impossible to identify people or objects; images with jagged, pixilated edges when the camera captures movement, making it difficult to read licenses plates or otheroidentifying items; objects such as traffic lights and trees blocking visibility; and no image at all, rendering only a pink screen.

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