The contractor responsible for installing 17 surveillance cameras in Buckhead said the cameras will be going up later than expected, but people familiar with the project expect the monitoring devices should be ready by the end of February or March.
Bob Carter, general manager for the Decatur, Ga., office of Texas-based Iron Sky, said the holidays set back efforts to bring those cameras online within the 12 weeks, the timetable provided when the company signed a contract with the Buckhead Community Improvement District on Oct. 25.
The cost of the cameras is $140,000 from the Buckhead CID which includes hardware and software installation and a one-year service agreement. The Atlanta Police Foundation will also pay $70,000 for the cameras, the Buckhead CID reported.
Tony Peters, CID project manager, said the system is “currently in design.”
“The Atlanta Police Department will be the owner of the system and they will be keeping the camera system in full working order,” Peters said.
The program, known as Operation Shield, will include 14 pan-and-zoom cameras and three fixed position cameras for the foot bridge pathway of a planned pedestrian bridge connecting to the Buckhead MARTA station. The company installed a similar surveillance system in Sandy Springs.
“As always, with any type of project like this, we ran into the holidays so we probably lost three weeks due to the holidays,” Carter said. “Everything shuts down.”
The Buckhead surveillance network will tie into the city of Atlanta’s new Video Integration Center. According to maps provided by the Buckhead CID, the cameras will go up on strategic locations on Roswell and Piedmont roads and around Lenox Road.
Carter said agreements to use certain rooftops in the area are still being worked out. He said the company is also working with Atlanta Police Department’s Zone 2 office to make sure police officials will be satisfied with the finished product.
“From the time the cameras are activated, from the time they start recording, it will give police a lot more information than they had previously,” Carter said.
“It provides so many more details than you had before. Once they start working with them, they start to apply them in ways they weren’t expecting to in the beginning.”
Peters said the feedback he’s getting on the plan is mostly positive. “Once implemented, this will be another tool in the fight against and deterrence of crime in Buckhead,” Peters said.
CID Executive Director Jim Durrett said there are currently no plans to add additional cameras to the Buckhead network.
“That does not mean that we intend not to,” Durrett said.
