![]() McElhinney said Friday that Caltrans isn’t likely to take the funding lead for similar highway surveillance camera efforts, but that as cities develop their own city surveillance systems, it will be easier for cities to do it. “We as cities shouldn’t be held to that same type of standard.” “It shouldn’t be the responsibility of the cities to protect the freeways,” said Romero said, who said communication among local governments to develop a regional plan need to improve. Romero said Friday he is encouraged by Caltrans’ help in Pittsburg, but said Caltrans would have to take it a step further if highways beyond Pittsburg are to get video surveillance. “Pittsburg really had to do the heavy lifting,” he said. The state agency, McElhinney said, was glad to help with the permitting and technical support. Hercules Mayor Dan Romero has led a campaign by the mayors of several Contra Costa County cities, along with Contra Costa District Attorney Mark Peterson, to seek state funding to install law enforcement-friendly surveillance cameras freeway onramps and offramps throughout the county, and to upgrade existing Caltrans cameras so police can use them.ĭan McElhinney, Caltrans’ District 4 Chief Deputy Director, said Pittsburg approached his agency “a day or two” after the city approved the spending, and came ready with a good project plan. The East Bay freeway shootings have prompted wider efforts to install cameras. The camera equipment was ordered literally the night the council approved the money, he said. “The chief was already preparing a report for the (city) council when that shooting took place,” Raman said. ![]() Its city council authorized the $100,000 expenditure on May 16 - five days after the killing of a 25-year-old Vallejo woman on Highway 4 west of Railroad Avenue. Pittsburg has been a leader in fighting the recent spate of East Bay freeway shootings - almost all of them gang-related - that have put drivers on Interstates 80 and 580, as well as Highway 4, in danger. The new cameras, he said, will cover every inch of Highway 4 within city limits. “We’ve gotten amazing support from local officials, and now from Caltrans,” Raman said Friday. The original plan, Raman said, had been to place the cameras on nearby city or private property that wouldn’t have afforded such thorough coverage. Not only did the city council move fast in May to approve the spending, but Caltrans approved in six weeks an “encroachment permit” allowing cameras on state highway property. Ron Raman expects them all to be activated early this week. Only two months after the police chief drafted a report asking for $100,000 to buy cameras trained on Highway 4 to help prevent, investigate and prosecute freeway shootings that have plagued the East Bay in recent months, 14 cameras have been installed. PITTSBURG - In this effort to make Highway 4 safer for drivers rolling through the city, the wheels of government turned unusually quickly.
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