CLEVELAND, Ohio - The city plans to erect thousands of high-tech street lights equipped with security cameras in a program aimed at making neighborhoods safer.
The citywide effort, dubbed the Safe Smart CLE Initiative, will enable police to brighten lights in trouble spots and monitor camera-covered areas in real time.
In an interview with cleveland.com, Mayor Frank Jackson said the project will cost millions of dollars but is worth the expense.
"We can project a better quality of life," he said.
Jackson's administration has sent legislation to City Council that would allow the city to sell bonds to raise money for the project. Council is expected to introduce that legislation Monday.
Editor's note: Council did introduce the legislation on Monday, April 23.
What's the plan?
The city intends to convert its 61,000 street lights to an LED system that can be controlled via remote control and will alert the city when a light fails.
The LED lights will provide more illumination than the conventional street lights, improving visibility and clarity, Robert Davis, Cleveland's director of public utilities, said.
Interactive technology built into the lights will allow Cleveland Public Power to closely monitor the system. Alerts from the system, such as when a light goes out, will allow for more efficient maintenance.
"Right now, it is a complaint driven system," Davis said. CPP now learns of a light failure only if a customer calls in a complaint or if CPP workers discover it.
The new lights will last much longer -- as much as 20 times the life of the current lights. And the LED lights use far less electricity.
The camera systems will be posted on the same light poles, all of which are owned by the city, although not every light pole will have a camera.
But, on some poles, such as those at intersections, there could be multiple cameras positioned to look up each street in the intersection.
Those cameras will feed video images directly to the police Emergency Operations Center and to the district police headquarters.
Where will the work start?
The cameras will be installed in several phases, focusing on the city's parks and recreation centers, major intersections and hot spots for crime. The cameras will provide surveillance at public-gathering spots and along major streets.
Initially, areas within 1,000 feet of rec centers will be monitored. In three wards that don't have rec centers, the cameras will focus on parks.
The first three target sites will be:
- The Michael Zone Recreation Center on Lorain Avenue on the West Side.
- The Zelma George Recreation Center and Luke Easter Park at Martin Luther King Boulevard on the East Side.
- The area around Kerruish Park on Lee Road in southeast Cleveland.
The lights at rec centers and parks all will be converted to the LED system.
Jackson said the rec centers were chosen because they're focal points in the city's neighborhoods.
"It goes right to where people live," he said. "All wards will be covered."
Davis expects it will take 18 months to complete the switch to LED lights. Getting the cameras installed will take about the same amount of time, said Don Phillips, Cleveland's chief information officer.
How does that bolster safety?
The better lighting will allow for better monitoring. With cameras covering high- traffic areas and hot spots, police will be able to more quickly respond to trouble, police Commander Harold Pretel said.
The LED lights allow cameras to capture more accurate colors than the current street lights, said Cleveland Public Power Commissioner Ivan Henderson.
That means police will be able to obtain better descriptions of crime suspects, including attire.
Here are some other benefits:
- If a neighborhood is holding a street festival, the lights could be adjusted to provide greater illumination to the evening event, increasing visibility at the event.
- If police get a call of a disturbance, the lights could be raised at that site allowing for better monitoring of the cameras and provide greater visibility for police arriving at the scene.
- If police are investigating a crime or an accident, the lights could be turned up at the crime scene.
Just the ability to raise the lighting level at a specific location should deter crime, Pretel said.
That's important at rec centers, said Michael Cox, Jackson's public works director who oversees the recreation department.
The rec centers draw hundreds of people every day, particularly in the summer. Better lighting and security cameras, both inside and outsides of the centers, should promote safety, he said.
What will it cost?
Upgrading the street lights will cost about $25 million, Davis said. The LED fixtures will account for about half of that amount. The city already owns all the poles. The remaining costs are associated with the installation of the system.
The cameras are expected to cost millions more dollars. The administration plans to ask City Council for approval to seek bids in the next few weeks.
The camera installations will be done in phases. The first phase will involve fewer than 1,000 cameras.
What happens next?
Jackson hopes to get the bonding legislation approved before council goes on summer break in June.
Once the system is in place, the city may also be able to tap into other existing camera systems at other large institutions such as hospitals and universities and public schools. The city would first have to obtain permission.
But once a link was established, it would greatly expand the area that could be monitored.