READING, Pa. – Reading Police are beefing up their camera system and even adding drones in an effort to fight crime in the city.
“We are being recorded many times and we don’t even realize it,” said Deputy Chief Luz Shade. “Whether it’s here in the City of Reading or throughout the United States, we are being captured at all times.”
The Reading Police Department is using drug forfeiture money awarded by the district attorney’s office to expand the camera system in the city.
“I think overall, our mission is always safety, so anything that we can help to implement that safety component,” said Shade. “I think the cameras, they speak for themselves.
She calls them the eyes and ears for any law enforcement entity.
“Many years ago, we actually had an incident in the 8th and Penn area, and you could actually see a muzzle flash from a gun,” Shade said. “So, it does help tremendously.”
There are currently about 150 camera feeds throughout the city and 100 cameras in and around Reading City Hall.
Officials are looking to add more than forty cameras and two drones.
“[They] can be utilized in a missing person’s case,” explained Shade. “Another component of it would be any dangerous scene that we can send an apparatus versus a human, that we can assess the situation, that is how we’re looking to implement them.”
The expansion is expected to be completed by or before the end of the year.
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