Surveillance cameras set for Bellevue neighborhood, downtown parking sites

PHOTOGRAPHER: Michael Lamendola

Schenectady County will install surveillance cameras in the Bellevue neighborhood and at two downtown parking sites next year, using $90,000 seized in drug raids by the Sheriff’s Office road patrol.

The intent is to deter crime in a community with an already low crime rate and eventually expand the camera system into the townships and the rest of the city, said Sheriff Dominic Dagostino.

“Bellevue is a good neighborhood in the city. This is a proactive approach that we feel is warranted,” said Dagostino Monday at a news conference in City Hall that announced the initiative.

Between 12 and 15 cameras will be installed in Bellevue and inside the downtown parking garage and at the parking lot behind Proctors, expanding a surveillance system that already encompasses the Mont Pleasant and Hamilton Hill neighborhoods, all of Central State Street to the crosstown, the Eastern Avenue corridor, the North Side of the city up Foster and Van Vranken avenues, near Union College and in downtown Schenectady.

Cameras are also installed in other parking lots owned by the Metroplex Development Authority. Metroplex owns the parking garage, used by patrons of Proctors and downtown visitors.

Dagostino said the county will consult with the Bellevue Preservation Association and Bellevue neighborhood watch groups on where to cite the cameras.

For more on the story, see Tuesday’s print and online editions of The Gazette.