Some Operation Shield Cameras to be Ready for Peachtree Race

Some  cameras will hopefully be up and running in time for the July 4 , according to board members at the recent meeting of the Buckhead Community Improvement District. 

Tony Peters of the CID said that a "project kick off meeting" with the Atlanta Police Department, APD Foundation and Iron Sky was held last week. . The total cost is $210,000, with the APD Foundation picking up $70,000. The install includes 17 cameras and three wireless antennas, Peters said.

"Our plan is to start physical implementation of the entire system starting next week and then be done in ten weeks," Peters said. "The bigger goal was to have cameras physically working during the July 4 road race."

"Cameras will be focused on the public realm, sidewalks and streets, to deter crime and allow the police to solve crimes," Buckhead CID Executive Director Jim Durrett said previously.

Durrett and others with the CID feel as if the perfect time to begin using the cameras will be during the heavily attended Peachtree Road Race, even though the original goal was to have the system operational this past January.

"We finally had movement on this and it looks like the install will be happening shortly," Durrett said during the meeting. "Its real. Its happening."

Peters stressed that not all the cameras will be online but those that are will be be able to be viewed by the APD during the race.

The Buckhead CID's board late last year approved the expenditure of $140,000 for the network of cameras that will be installed from the Buckhead Village area up Peachtree Road to beyond Roxboro Road.

Buckhead will now join downtown and Midtown in receiving surveillance from the Atlanta Police Department's video integration center. Durrett said earlier that private companies can request having their security cameras tied in to the system.