City officials from Philadelphia have received a tour of Baltimore’s public CCTV system as part of preliminary work toward installing a similar system in the City of Brotherly Love. Voters in Philadelphia will vote on a nonbinding referendum in May on whether to support a public CCTV system there. Ultimately, however, Philadelphia police will make the final decision on whether to have installers set up public video surveillance.
The Baltimore Sun says Philadelphia Mayor John Street, a supporter of public video surveillance, was given a tour of the Baltimore system – made up of 228 fixed cameras and 83 mobile cameras – by Mayor Martin O’Malley and other Baltimore officials. “This is the most creative, effective use of cameras anywhere in the country,” Street told the Sun.
