Lancaster Safety Coalition adding more cameras in the city to fight crime

LANCASTER, Pa. -- Chances are, if you're walking in the city of Lancaster, you're being watched. The Lancaster Safety Coalition operates a vast system of surveillance cameras, and pretty soon, the group plans to add more to help fight crime.

The coalition wants to install 8 new cameras, bringing the total they operate throughout the city to 169. "Our mission is we enhance community safety and we believe that we're doing that," said Executive Director of the Lancaster Safety Coalition, Wes Farmer.

MAP OF CAMERAS

The community rallied with the nonprofit to raise $101,000 for the project. The goal is to help areas that have seen a recent spike in crime. "We were asked by the community, several organizations. Part of it had to do with a minor uptick in some crimes in the northeast and the northwest, so we decided to put some cameras there. We're also adding a few other cameras that were donor supported," said Farmer.

Behind the lenses someone with the coalition is manning the cameras 12 to 14 hours a day. Staff are set up with monitors, controls and a scanner, so they can bring up a camera and help dispatchers see an incident as it happens.

"Somebody will call 911, or sometimes our operators will see an incident through the cameras and notice that something is going wrong and call the police. The police will respond, and in the meantime we're keeping an eye on what's going on and gathering that video evidence," said Farmer. According to statistics, last year, coalition staff called dispatchers 461 times to report suspicious activity.

Police
The video footage has been invaluable to police, too. Lancaster City Police used coalition video as evidence in more than 2,000 investigations in 2014. Lt. Todd Umstead said police use the cameras several times a day at least, whether it's to help an officer responding to a scene or tracking suspects as they leave a crime. He said it helps officers dispute crimes and puts criminals in jail.