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City moving forward with surveillance camera plan PHILADELPHIA - City officials are moving forward with a plan to use surveillance cameras to fight crime in commercial corridors and in neighborhoods, a system used by police in other large cities. Council members will meet with Mayor John F. Street and Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson next week on the issue, Councilman Darrell L. Clarke said Monday. Among other things, they will talk about forming a task force of police and members of the community to establish guidelines and policies for the cameras. Voters in last week's primary election voted by a nearly 4-to-1 margin to allow amendment of the city charter to allow the use of video surveillance in a way that "protects civil liberties and legitimate privacy interests." The system will begin as a pilot program and will then be expanded citywide, said Clarke, who sponsored the proposal. Police, not the task force, will decide where the cameras will be placed, but Clarke said he expects the locations to be made public so that the cameras can serve as a deterrent to crime. "I think they should be extremely visible," Clarke said, adding that his office has received many requests from residents to have cameras placed in their neighborhoods. The ACLU Pennsylvania has expressed concerns about potential misuse of the cameras, but legislative director Larry Frankel said the group does not plan any immediate action. "We have to see what the city actually does before making any firm decision," Frankel said. Public surveillance cameras are used in Baltimore, New York, Chicago and Washington. Clarke said he and other officials plan to go to Chicago in the next month to see how the city's surveillance system - which includes cameras that focus on the sound of gunfire - is working. Officials are also interested in a Baltimore system that allows patrol officers to access cameras through laptop computers in their cars. ---------------------------------------------------
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