Page 50 - Security Today, August 2017

On the Tip of their Toes Fresno PD may have technology advantage in their backyard
BNy Ralph C. Jensen
o matter where any given city places a video surveil- lance camera, there are privacy concerns. There is, however, another side to the story. There are those community members who praise law enforcement for placing cameras in their neighborhoods for
peace and security.
No one agency knows this better than the Fresno, Calif., Police
Department, and within the department, Sgt. Steve Casto, who has been with the department for 21 years, and with the city’s FPD Crime Center team for the past five years. Casto and FPD may have a slight advantage because of a working relationship they have with nearby neighbors, Pelco, which is based in Clovis, Calif.
“We’ve been working with Pelco for the past 10 years, and to our advantage, have been able to test and try their newest and latest technology efforts,” Casto said. “We work very closely with Pelco on city video surveillance. We have placed cameras at many major inter- sections throughout the city, with a large concentration in downtown Fresno. Using crime data, we try and determine the best locations to place our cameras.
The city of Fresno is an interesting case study in city surveillance,
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to say the least. Law enforcement has about 200 of their own cameras that they monitor throughout the city, plus 250 cameras in traffic op- erations, plus, nearly 3,000 cameras associated with the Fresno Uni-
CITY SURVEILLANCE