Naperville installing security cameras to monitor downtown
Naperville police soon will have some extra help keeping an eye on downtown.
The city is installing numerous surveillance cameras throughout the area in the coming weeks.
"Our goal in downtown is to make it really safe for our residents and people who visit downtown Naperville as well as the work force," said Dan Voiland, telecommunications manager for the city.
The cameras also will protect city property. In a year's time, city facilities sustained more than $72,000 in damage from vandalism.
Naperville will install a "public safety pod" at the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Washington Street that will include five fixed cameras and one that can pan, tilt and zoom to scan the area.
Movable cameras also will be installed at four additional intersections - Washington Street and Jefferson Avenue, Jackson Avenue and Main Street, Jefferson Avenue and Main Street and Chicago Avenue and Main Street.
"That's the core of the downtown area where there are a lot of activities," Voiland said.
The city will install five additional fixed cameras in the parking garage at 75 E. Chicago Ave. where vandalism has been a problem.
"By putting up signs ... that areas may be under surveillance it may deter people or make them think twice about doing anything," Voiland said. "And if they've done that they've accomplished their goal."
Cameras won't constantly be monitored but emergency dispatchers will be able to log in and look at the footage in real time. Police will be able to review footage after an incident.
There are already cameras in Naperville at the Van Buren parking garage, test track, downtown Metra station and the municipal center. Voiland said the cameras have helped deter vandalism at the Van Buren garage and have aided police in identifying people vandalizing the Cmdr. Dan Shanower/Sept. 11 Memorial and stealing bicycles at the train station.
The new equipment, installation and first year of software access will cost just less than $70,000 and the city will pay about $23,000 in annual costs.
The city will be able to tap into its wireless network in the downtown area to send video footage to a recording device. This move will cost about $15,000, compared to the $350,000 it would have cost to install a fiber network.
Voiland hopes the new cameras will be operational by the end of October.
Later this year the city also plans to install cameras at its electrical substations and water distribution facility.