Residents concerned over potential placement of traffic cameras in Beaver County

BEAVER COUNTY, Pa. — When you drive through an intersection every day, you likely are not looking for cameras. But dozens of intersections in Beaver County have just that.

“The cameras are not speeding cameras, they are not traffic light cameras, they only identify a vehicle after it leaves a traffic light,” said David Lozier, the Beaver County district attorney.

An image is taken of every license plate that goes through the designated intersections. Those plates are then put into a database used by the county to solve crimes.

“We’ve had homicides solved in 15-20 minutes because we know someone fled the scene, we know the make and model of the car, we tracked the car, made an arrest, and keep the community safe,” Lozier said.

With 45 active cameras, the DA believes the method is working. He credits the solving of Sharon Benyo’s murder in October to the cameras tracking the suspect’s vehicle in Chippewa Township. These kinds of measurable results are why he believes it is important to expand the program.

“We are looking at adding a couple of major intersections in the Ambridge area,” Lozier said.

But the locations of these cameras have some residents concerned. They reached out to Channel 11 stating that the potential locations are targeting low-income and minority populations. Plus, the housing authority is paying into this round, although the cameras are not on their property and are positioned blocks from any entrances.

Channel 11 took their issues straight to the DA.

“We only put them at major traffic intersections. These aren’t on side streets, they are on major commercial districts. There is not facial recognition, it’s just license plates, which is public data,” Lozier said.

Currently, the camera locations aren’t available to the public.

“We have tight security measures to make sure that police are tracked. Police chiefs audit (how) and why they have access to make sure people’s privacy aren’t violated,” Lozier said.

The typical funding for these cameras comes from county drug money, but, after a time, the storage fees fall to the individual municipalities.

The Ambridge Council is expected to vote on the new cameras at their meeting Tuesday.

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