ELKINS — The rollout of Elkins’ city-wide public safety street camera system has begun, starting in the parks, Elkins City Police Chief Travis Bennett said.

During Elkins City Council’s April 17 meeting, Bennett informed council the installation of street cameras in the parks started during the week of April 14 and were ongoing.

“The last update that I had was that Glendale (Park) was complete,” Bennett told council. “They’ve got everything in it, and they’re still working on Riverbend and the City Park. We should actually be able to get video feeds from the first ones that are complete pretty soon.”

Elkins’ public safety street camera system will consist of approximately 75 cameras mounted around the city in an effort to detect and prevent crime. The cameras will utilize license plate reader technology.

Bennett explained that the parks, to his understanding, would be the “harder lift” when compared to the other camera locations, due to the parks not having established connections. Elkins Mayor Jerry Marco said officials initially planned on installing the cameras in the parks during the third and last phase of the rollout, due to the belief that it would be the harder task; however, it was instead moved into the first phase. 

Cameras will also be installed at all major entrance and exit points to the city, such as the Beverly Pike, Harrison Avenue, North Randolph Avenue and U.S. Route 33, and at all major intersections and points of interest throughout the city.

During City Council’s March 20 meeting, Bennett announced that he would be meeting with the Department of Highways (DOH) on March 27 to further discuss the possibility of using DOH infrastructure to mount the cameras.

“So, hopefully we’re starting to gain a little bit of traction in being able to use their infrastructure to hang our cameras,” Bennett said during the March 20 meeting. “I feel like we’re getting closer to seeing them go up and become operational. I’m getting excited for it and hopefully we’ll have it in place soon.”

In 2023, the city received $950,000 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Justice Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant for the camera system.

In a press release that announced the funding, Bennett said the system would not only be effective in preventing, detecting and investigating criminal activity but would also “provide valuable assistance in non-criminal tasks such as traffic crash investigation, missing persons and monitoring roadway conditions during inclement weather.”

During a City Council meeting in March 2023, Marco stated the cameras would not be used for 24-hour monitoring or spying on city residents.

“I do feel comfortable in saying that the cameras will not be used to spy on,” Marco said. “They will not be used for monitoring. We do not have the staff for that. They will be used a lot for evidence after an event happens.”

Bennett also added during the 2023 meeting that, with the funding, the city could keep the system in place for the next 10 years.

According to a City of Elkins press release in 2023, at the time, similar camera systems were already in use in multiple West Virginia cities, including Bridgeport, Clarksburg, Morgantown and Parkersburg.

Camera placement in Elkins has been carefully considered to balance privacy and public safety, Bennett said.

“We are not planning to place any cameras in primarily residential neighborhoods,” Bennett said in the 2023 release. “We simply want to be able to look back at traffic movements and incidents occurring along the city’s major rights of way. There is no intention to try to capture activities on private property.”