PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Most Parks and Recreation centers have surveillance cameras on site, but now, a number of them have additional cameras installed just outside their fences to create a wider “safe play zone.”
On Wednesday, city officials witnessed workers install security cameras outside of Dendy Recreation Center playground in North Philadelphia. It’s one of 14 city recreation centers, chosen based on Police Department crime data, where 100 cameras have been distributed in a long-delayed effort to improve public safety around recreation areas.
“Parks and Recreation sites like this one at Dendy should be safe and sacred spaces for young people,” said Commissioner Kathryn Ott Lovell.
She lamented the 300 incidents of gun violence that have been reported in and around city parks in the last four years, and she praised the tactic of taking in a wider view around them to improve safety.
“These crimes don’t just happen on our rec centers, but they happen 10, 20, 30 even 100 feet out — but that still impacts the lives of the young people and the families and the communities and the staff members who call these rec centers home,” she said.
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City Council President Darrell Clarke made it clear he would have preferred to create safe play zones by banning guns in city parks, but after a judge struck down an executive order from Mayor Jim Kenney in October, the state Legislature failed to approve a bill that would have made such a ban possible.
“But we could not just stand there and throw our hands up and say we’re not going to do anything. So we’re announcing what we can do is make sure we have cameras around the perimeter,” Clarke said.
“We have to show these facilities will be safe. The significant investment made by the City of Philadelphia [on renovations through the Rebuild project] only means something if these facilities are safe.”
Clarke first proposed perimeter cameras nearly two years ago, but supply chain disruptions prevalent through the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the effort.
Lovell said the city wants to provide safe havens this summer and is planning to open 60 pools — the most since 2019 — because it’s been able to hire five times as many lifeguards as last year, thanks to a $1,000 signing bonus.
She says there are still openings, with that signing bonus, for anyone who’s interested.
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