PG using security cameras to watch over speed cameras - DC Breaking Local News Weather Sports FOX 5 WTTG

PG using security cameras to watch over speed cameras

Police in Prince George's County are turning up the heat on vandals who with greater frequency now are attacking and tampering with speed cameras.

The county operates 60 of the portable devices. And yes, they are not the most popular things in the world.

"The way the economy is, people are struggling, and this is what we get," says driver Brian Tyner, pointing at one of the speed cameras. "It's just ridiculous."

The one Tyner was referring to along Race Track Road in Bowie just replaced one destroyed by fire.

"Me being a Christian, I was sort of like, 'That's not right,"' Tyner continues. "But a little subconsciously, you're like, 'I'm glad they did it."'

In recent months, six of the county's speed cameras have been vandalized.

"That includes everything from spray painting to being shot at," says Prince George County Police Major Robert Liberati, who is commander of the section that manages the speed cameras.

He says they have taken the unprecedented step of placing a security camera on top of the new speed camera on Race Track Road.

"And what that does, it photographs down at the base of the camera just to, number one, record any activity of someone that may try to tamper with the camera, and number two, to try to dissuade someone from maybe doing that kind of thing," Maj. Liberati told us.

The speed cameras cost up to $100,000 a piece. And Maj. Liberati says the police department is hoping to have a dozen more security cameras atop their speed cameras up and rolling by the end of the year.