The Department of Recreation and Parks installed a new surveillance camera in the Yosemite Recreation Center Wednesday in an effort to reduce graffiti in the area as well as prevent crimes such as the brutal assault on a jogger by a group of young skateboarders at the park in February.
The camera, mounted on a metallic pole in the space between the swimming pool and the amphitheater, is the second surveillance device in the park, and its installation ensures that the rec center’s relatively remote and desolate southern edge, bordering Eagle Rock High School, will be under 24-hour observation, Director Zenay Loera said.
Recreation and Parks workers moved an existing surveillance camera, installed in the swimming pool premises, about 20 feet east (toward the campus), a step aimed at allowing the two cameras to cover a wider area than they would have otherwise, explained Alan Berta, a Mount Washington resident and community services volunteer. Berta, who specializes in video surveillance as well as technology, information and design services, helped with today’s camera installation.
Officers at the LAPD Northeast Division headquarters will have access to the cameras’ round-the-clock surveillance through their computers and mobile phones, as well as three big-screen monitors at the police station on San Fernando Road, Berta said.
The cameras have so-called “PTZ” capabilities—that is, they can be made to “pan” from side to side, “tilt” up and down and “zoom” as required by someone remotely, Berta said. He added that funds for the cameras were provided by the City Council as well as a number of neighborhood organizations, including the and TERA (The Eagle Rock Association).
"I want to thank the ERNC and TERA for expediting our plan to install a second surveillance camera at Yosemite Park," said . "Along with other safety measures that we have implemented, such as increased police patrols and additional lighting, the new camera and signage will make the park safer."
On the night of Feb. 2, four or five young skateboarders at the Yosemite Rec Center assaulted a 45-year-old resident who lives near Addison Way, adjacent to the Yosemite Rec Center. Police arrested an 18-year-old suspect believed to be responsible for the attack. Read Eagle Rock Patch's coverage of the aggravated robbery .
