The City Council unanimously approved Sept. 12 entering into a three-year lease agreement with Georgia Power to lease surveillance license plate reader cameras at nearly 30 spots throughout the city.
The agreement comes after the Brookhaven Police Department in May became the first municipality in the state to team up with Georgia Power for a test run of the license plate readers to be placed on Georgia Power utility poles as part of the service provider’s SiteView program.
Georgia Power will provide 44 license plate readers to be located on its utility poles for a total of $19,476.64 per month for three years for a total of more than $700,000. As part of the lease agreement, Georgia Power will install a new utility pole at 4400 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road by the Texaco as well as provide maintenance of the cameras and the networking and software needed.
Georgia Power will retain ownership of the cameras. Brookhaven Police will have access to the Vigilant LEARN system, the software used to capture and read license plates as the pass cameras.
The test run for the cameras proved successful and Chief Gary Yandura recommended the city enter into a formal agreement.
The license plate readers will be clearly marked with BPD signage. The video feeds do not come through Georgia Power; video is sent to a video recorder on-site or to third-party, cloud-based storage and Brookhaven Police ultimately owns the data and feed, according to Georgia Power officials.
“One of the options for the program moving forward is working with city governments for installation of SiteView cameras on electric utility poles on the public right of way,” Hawkins said.
“The Brookhaven Police Department engaged with us early on regarding this possibility and we are working with them to explore the potential to further customize the service to align with public safety systems they already have in place, including license plate recognition programs,” he stated.
In Yandura’s memo, he says the Georgia Power program could “dramatically expand our crime solving capacity, our crime predicting analyses, and crime deterrence capabilities through video monitoring and license plate detection facilitated by [Georgia Power].”
Similar programs have been used across the U.S. and globally, Yandura said. More than 500,000 cameras are in use across London. And in the city of Atlanta, a camera and LPR system boasts more than 14,000 cameras, Yandura has stated.
Last year, the BPD’s mobile LPR devices that can be used in police vehicles scanned more than 350,000 license plates resulting in nearly 6,000 alerts to stolen vehicles and wanted persons, Yandura said in May.
Surveillance camera sites
More than one camera may be located at the following locations:
► Executive Park South/Executive Park Drive N.E.
► Executive Park Drive N.E.
► Buford Highway N.E. at the Quickshot Shooting Range
► Carter Drive N.E. at Peachtree-Dunwoody Road N.E.
► North Druid Hills approaching Briarcliff Road
► Lenox Park Boulevard
► Rockhaven Circle N.E. at Roxboro Road N.E.
► Briarwood Road N.E. off I-85 frontage road
► Clairmont Road at I-85 N.E. on ramp (north of interstate)
► Clairmont Road at I-85 N.E. on ramp (south of interstate)
► Clairmont Road at Buford Highway at the Smoothie King
► Airport Road at Clairmont Road
► Dresden Drive at Clairmont Road, before the Post Office
► Peachtree Road N.E. at Club Drive N.E.
► Glenridge View N.E. at Johnson Ferry Road
► Perimeter Summit Parkway
► Lake Hearn Drive
► Ashford-Dunwoody Road N.E. at the
Johnson Ferry Road intersection triangle
► Harts Mill Road
► North Druid Hills Road N.E. at the I-85 SW exit lane.
It is fine to use cameras to find vehicles that are stolen or related to warrants for people. The numbers that do not “get a hit” should be deleted within 72. hours. Otherwise, you have an unconstitutional tracking system with no warrants.
James C. Walker, National Motorists Association