With the launch of police training on video surveillance rules and an effort to identify security cameras held by neighborhood groups, a long-shelved privacy ordinance is finally seeing daylight, reports Rich Lord of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
(TNS) -- A long-shelved city of Pittsburgh privacy ordinance is finally seeing daylight this summer, with the launch of police training in video surveillance rules and an effort to identify security cameras held by neighborhood groups.
In 2008, the city prepared to buy a multimillion-dollar surveillance network, landing federal Department of Homeland Security funds because one of the system’s aims was to guard port facilities. Bill Peduto, then a city councilman, pushed through a Privacy Policy for Public Security Camera Systems. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl signed it.
Among other things, the ordinance called for creation of a Camera Review Committee to decide where to use surveillance, provide training for police and neighborhood groups to keep them from profiling and invading privacy, and give public notification of the placement of cameras.
Read the entire story at Emergency Management.
