PORT ANGELES — Installation of 28 security cameras — 10 of them new additions — set to cover the downtown waterfront could begin within the next two weeks, the city’s police chief said.
“I should think [in] seven to 10 days, maybe two weeks, we should get rolling on this thing,” Terry Gallagher said Friday.
“Our timeline is to have it done by the end of the year.”
Longview-based Cascade Networks will install 10 new state-of-the-art digital cameras and replace 18 existing security cameras under a $236,805 contract with City Hall, approved by council members in a unanimous vote Aug. 6.
City funds will pay for $62,951 of the costs for the system, while the rest will be picked up by a Federal Emergency Management Agency port security grant secured in 2010.
The city also will pay about $1,440 more per year for the four new fiber-optic Internet connections needed for the camera installation.
Cascade Networks will subcontract with Port Angeles-based Capacity Provision Inc., providers of fiber-optic Internet services to the city and a number of other private companies and public entities in Clallam County.
Gallagher said the city was able to “piggyback” on an existing contract Cascade Networks has with the city of Seattle for installing a nearly identical video surveillance system, meaning the city did not specifically put the installation project out for bid.
“It allows us to move forward in a more expeditious manner,” Gallagher said.
Gallagher said he thought a separate bid process was not needed for Port Angeles because Cascade Networks already was shown to be the most cost-effective bidder after the city of Seattle awarded the company its contract.
The new cameras will cover an area west of the Black Ball Ferry Line dock and focus on the city’s ongoing waterfront and esplanade improvements in that area, Gallagher said.
“It would put us at least to the [Valley Creek] estuary and perhaps a little bit further,” said Gallagher, adding that this area is not currently covered by cameras.
The project also will replace 18 analogue cameras covering an area from Francis Street Park to the beginning of the stretch of Waterfront Trail running just north of the Red Lion Hotel, Gallagher added.
Some of the new cameras will be able to be remotely zoomed and swiveled by officers and staff in the police station on Fifth Street, Gallagher said.
The new surveillance system, tied into the city’s existing wireless mesh network, also will allow officers to view camera footage either from their mobile devices or computers in their patrol cars, Gallagher said.
Officer time will not be dedicated to monitoring the cameras 24/7, Gallagher said, adding that their main use will be as a deterrent to crime and for collecting video evidence of crimes that have been committed.
“The biggest advantage to us is that if an incident occurs, these cameras [could] capture evidence,” Gallagher said.
Smith has said the images the cameras capture will be of high enough quality to identify the license plate of a given vehicle.
To abide by state law, footage the cameras record will be kept for 30 days before it is erased, Gallagher said.
Most of the cameras will be mounted on existing poles, Gallagher said, with some poles set to hold more than one camera.
Other government agencies with cameras in the Port Angeles area include the Port of Port Angeles and the state departments of Transportation and Homeland Security.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
