Police Cameras Planned for Winder Village, Other Areas

Bristol Township will soon install “crime prevention” cameras in the town’s Winder Village section. The news comes just weeks after a triple shooting left two men dead and one in critical condition the neighborhood.

“We pay too much in taxes to live out there (in Winder Village) and not be safe,” community committee woman Irma Boyd recently said before council. “We need more officers. We need the cameras.”

Following Boyd’s comments, Township Manager Bill McCauley announced a camera system would be installed in the Winder Village section in the coming months.Previously, the manager said the township has $50,000 to pay for cameras. They money came from a grant received last year.

The system would be used to help the police department, which has seen its staff of officers shrink in recent years. Residents have implored the township to hire more patrol officers to combat crime in the township. The cameras are one way, according to officials, the township can help add extra eyes on the street.

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Acting Chief of Police Lt. John Godzieba told LevittownNow.com officials are currently looking at several different camera models and pricing options. Police officials have looked at several internet connected systems.

Godzieba said he hopes to not only have cameras in Winder Village but also several other areas in the township.

The new camera system, much like a current system in the Bloomsdale-Fleetwing section, will feed back to police station on Bath Road. Godzieba said no one will be monitoring it around the clock but all the cameras record and officials will check in on them.

The police in Winder Village has been noticably stepped up over the last two weekends. Patrol units have been winding in and out of the village while two units have been seen sitting at various times at each access point on along  Fayette Ave  and Veterans Avenues.

A neighbor source who asked not to be identified told LevittownNow on Friday night that the cameras’s are  “a great idea but what about all that foot traffic? What can  the cameras do for that?”

Additionally, LevittownNow exclusively reported last week about ongoing meetings between local and state officials with the representatives from Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s office about other proactive measures to that could be taken in order to reinforce the work of the surveillance camera’s

What makes the new camera system different from the federal-funded system used in Bloomsdale-Fleetwing, is the new system will be accessible via police mobile devices.

The township operates several newer cameras that can be viewed via patrol car computers in the Croydon and Indian Creek section.

In October 2012, recently retire Chief of Police James McAndrews said crime in the Bloomsdale-Fleetwing neighborhood has fallen by more than 50 percent since the cameras were installed. The system features surveillance cameras every few yards on the neighborhood’s streets and even featured automatic license plate readers (ALPR.) The ALPRs capture an image of the license plate of every vehicle that enters the neighborhood and runs it against databases of expired, stolen or wanted vehicles.

In the 1990s, cities like Philadelphia, New York and Chicago began installing the police surveillance cameras in high-crime sections. Philadelphia officials cited a drop in crime in the areas surrounding the cameras.

Publisher/Editor Jeff Bohen contributed to this report