State Representative Costa for Red Light Camera Legislation

Pennsylvania State Representative Paul Costa (D-Allegheny County), says that he will reintroduce legislation to install red-light cameras in Pittsburgh, Scranton, McKeesport and Duquesne.

The cameras will capture the license plates of those who run red-lights. Representative Costa says that tickets that come from the cameras will be similar to parking tickets.

"Some people make the complaint that is about big brother which that's not the case because we only take a picture of the vehicle and the license plate, not the driver. It's similar to getting a parking ticket. If you would park at a meter and the meter would expire the vehicle gets the ticket not the driver of that vehicle."

Costa is also aware of of the complaint that this legislation is another way for the state to generate revenue.

"Money is generated from this, but the bottom line is that it saves lives."

Costa says that Pittsburgh has the highest fatality rate at intersections, and that reports show there is a 24% reduction of accidents at intersections where there are red-light cameras

Philadelphia is the only city in Pennsylvania to have them.

Costa introduced red-light camera legislation last year, but the House did not act on it. This year, he plans to reintroduce it to the Republican dominated House. Costa says that safety should be the number one priority.

He is working with Senator Dominic Pileggi, the majority leader in the Senate, to pass this legislation. Pileggi's legislation implementing red-light cameras was not passed last year because of distracted drivers provisions that were also in the bill.

Pittsburgh Partners with CMU and CCAC for Stimulus Dollars

The City of Pittsburgh has submitted an application for $14 million dollars in federal stimulus funds to expand wireless video security. The city is partnering with Carnegie Mellon University and Community College of Allegheny County on the broadband stimulus application. Howard Stern, chief information officer for Pittsburgh, says CMU is not interested in surveillance cameras, but they are interested in data that the cameras will generate for research purposes. He says CCAC is looking to install surveillance cameras at the North Side campus and surrounding neighborhood.

Stern says the city received a grant about 2 years ago to protect the waterways, ports and rivers, which they are working to complete. He says the beauty of that grant is that it established the infrastructure to expand citywide, but the city doesn't have the money to do that. He says the federal stimulus dollars would allow for that expansion. Stern says the grant would support 220 cameras of a wireless network that would cover the entire city. The video cameras would be mobile allowing them to be moved from one neighborhood to another depending on crime-related problems. Stern says although there is intense competition for these federal dollars, city officials are hopeful that the collaboration with CMU and CCAC will result in a grant award for the project. He says they'll find out if they got the grant money by late summer.