Two cameras up in Brundidge

Published 8:40 pm Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Brundidge residents may be caught on camera now, whether they know it or not.

The city of Brundidge recently installed two cameras to monitor two different parts of the city, one located on Veteran’s Boulevard and the other at Galloway Park.

The camera on Veteran’s Boulevard is set up so traffic can be watched, while the camera at Galloway Park can see practically all the park and some of the area that surrounds it.

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The cameras came at no cost to the city, as external funds were available.

“The Homeland Security department made funds available through the Emergency Management Agency for this type of thing,” said Brit Thomas, Brundidge City Manager. “We sure are appreciative of the Pike County EMA for their assistance.”

Thomas said the city is still trying to determine how the cameras should be used.

“We’re just trying to determine the best way to use them, just how they work, that kind of thing,” Thomas said.

The new cameras in Brundidge aren’t typical security cameras, either.

Rather than providing a grainy, distorted image, the images are predominately clear.

“They have a pretty good resolution. It’s all in real-time, and we can rotate the cameras 360 degrees if we need to,” Thomas said.

While the cameras may be monitoring Veteran’s Boulevard and Galloway Park for the moment, their locations could change.

“We have a total of four boxes for the cameras and two cameras, so we have two extra boxes,” Thomas said. “Eventually, we plan to put those extra boxes up so that we can move the cameras around if need be.”

Currently, the cameras are recording and sending video to the city police station, rather than being used in an effort to catch speeders like cameras on traffic lights do.

“It’s just a monitoring-type thing. If things got real bad, we might monitor a water well or an electrical substation,” Thomas said.

However, the cameras can still be used for sorting out other traffic-related problems that might arise.

“For example, if there was an accident on Veterans Boulevard, hypothetically, we could go through the files and get a better idea of what happened,” Thomas said.