Plum matches $26,000 in county funding for cameras at 3 intersections

Surveillance cameras to be installed at three intersections in Plum will become part of a network police use to help solve crime, a police department spokesman said.

Plum Council has approved spending $26,000 for the cameras, matching $26,000 offered by the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office.

They will be placed on Hulton Road at Route 909 near Sheetz; on Route 380 at Center Road near Puff Discount Tobacco; and on Route 286 at Presque Isle Drive, near Presque Isle Plaza, township Interim Manager David Soboslay said.

Rebecca Spangler, District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.’s chief of staff, said the office has provided grants for cameras to more than 48 communities.

“The program has been very successful in providing a tool to the communities in identifying instances of criminal activity, accidents, etc.,” she said.

In April 2022, Zappala told the Trib the surveillance network he organized had grown to 2,600 cameras in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland counties, and he was discussing further expansion.

While about 600 of the cameras at that time could read license plates, Zappala’s office said it does not have facial recognition capabilities and has no plans for that.

Frazer police received money from Zappala for a surveillance system installed at the Pittsburgh Mills shopping complex in March 2017. Police Chief Terry Kuhns credited it with increasing the arrest and conviction rate for shoplifters from as low as 25% to nearly 90%.

Plum police Detective Joseph Little said the department anticipates the cameras will be in service before the end of the year. They will be part of a network in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties.

They will not be monitored in real-time, he said.

“Officers and criminal investigators will be able to access the cameras to help identify suspects in almost any type of incident,” Little said. “Thefts, robberies, hit-and-run vehicle accidents, just to name a few.”

Little said Plum has had cameras operating on the western side of the borough since 2016.

The borough is divided into three patrol zones — east, middle and west.

“With the cameras, each zone will have them,” Little said.