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Doug LaFrance, of Otisco, a technician with Control Network Communications out of Albany, installs a police camera along Shonnard Street in Syracuse in March 2011. A new federal grant will pay for new cameras along the Park Street corridor this year. When the work is done, the city will have about 60 police surveillance cameras.
(Lauren Long | llong@syracuse.com)
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Justice Department will pay for the installation of five new police surveillance cameras along Syracuse's Park Street corridor as part of a $130,472 grant for anti-crime initiatives in the city.
Members of Central New York's congressional delegation said today that half of the grant money will be used to buy and install Neighborhood Criminal Observation and Protection System (COPS) Platform cameras.
This Syracuse police camera at Gifford and Geddes streets is one of about 60 the city expects to have operating by the end of the summer.
The new cameras will be able to "communicate" with a network of police surveillance cameras that are being installed throughout Syracuse, including 60 expected to be operational by the end of the summer.
The other half of the federal grant will be used for additional police equipment, said U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who supported the grant application with U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei, D-Syracuse.
Syracuse had applied for the federal aid through the Department of Justice's Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program. Since the first cameras were installed in Syracuse in 2011, neighborhood groups have asked the city to install more police surveillance cameras as a deterrent to crime.
Contact Washington Correspondent Mark Weiner at mweiner@syracuse.com or 571-970-3751. Follow him on Twitter @MarkWeinerDC