PITTSBURG -- Police and school officials plan to link cameras at the city's year-old high school to a citywide security system that has been credited with helping to solve crimes.
The move will help police investigate any crimes that might occur on the 2,500-student campus or respond more quickly to a disturbance, police Cpt. Brian Addington said.
The intention is not "to actively monitor the kids," Addington said. "If there are any issues at the high school, we can have access to the cameras quickly so we can respond to any emergency there."
One police officer is assigned full time to the high school campus and another to the city's two junior high schools, Addington said.
Pittsburg has spent $1.5 million to install 80 cameras at strategic points in the city since 2005. Images from the cameras are stored on the department's computer hard drives for three weeks, giving officers time to review them if a crime is reported near a camera location, he said.
The department has used the images to corroborate information from victims and witnesses and solve more than 100 crimes, Addington said.
"In one case, there was an attempted murder in which the suspect was seen riding a bicycle to and from the crime scene and was identified and convicted based on the taped evidence," he said.
Pittsburg High School Principal Todd Whitmire said no significant incidents have happened in the new campus's first year, but he welcomed the link, saying it will supplement what administrators and teachers are doing to keep the campus safe.
The campus has 100 cameras in the courtyard, halls and stairwells, and Whitmire and other administrators can view the images on their laptops, he said.
The cameras haven't helped with one of the most frustrating problems at the $60 million campus: graffiti and other vandalism in the restrooms, Whitmire said.
"If there is vandalism and graffiti, typically it happens in the bathrooms where cameras are not allowed," he said.
The citywide system has been funded primarily with developer fees, homeland security grants and redevelopment funds, Addington said.
The school district will pay about $40,000 for software to establish the link, and the city will pay for upkeep and maintenance of the system, he said.
Contact Rick Radin at 925-779-7166.