OAKLAND — Oakland hills residents are turning to technology to keep their neighborhoods safe.

Many are installing surveillance video cameras at key locations to record the make and license plates of cars traveling through the area. Images could be helpful to authorities in the event of a burglary or other serious crime.

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Members of The Seven Streets neighborhood group in the Piedmont Pines section of Oakland have been installing cameras at key locations throughout the area which is bounded by Girvin, Thackery, Chelsea, Stockbridge and Westover drives and Rydal Court.

The cameras are all-weather, 24-hour per day units that cost about $1,000 each. Installing them was something of a challenge for group members who had never done this kind of electronic work before.

“It’s five times more work than we thought it would be, but it’s a good thing,” said Bruce Conrad, one of the group’s key volunteers, as he worked on an installation on a rather hilly home. “There are a lot of people in the neighborhood with different kinds of skills.”

When the project is completed, eight cameras will be in place recording traffic on the winding neighborhood streets.

Images are sent to a central website where they can be viewed and filtered by time and date. The seven neighborhoods have had their share of burglaries and a recent robbery with victims confronted at gunpoint, Conrad said.

While installing the cameras will not stop all incidents, they are another asset to use against crime, Conrad said.

“We are going into it with our eyes open that just having cameras will put people in jail, but it’s a piece of information and hopefully just seeing the signs and camera will be a deterrent,” Conrad said.

Steps will be taken to ensure that the camera system does not violate rights to privacy, he said.

”For the most part, we are not giving police access to the information we are collecting ourselves,” he said.

“If there is a home invasion and (robbery) and they want to see what is on a particular camera, we want them to see it, but as a matter of course, we are not letting government agencies look into the comings and goings of people in the community,” Conrad said.

Courts have ruled that video cameras trained on public places like a road do not violate the U.S. Constitution because drivers do not have an expectation of privacy.

To pay for the program, group volunteers sought donations from the neighbors with a suggested donation of $300 per household. They hoped to collect $20,000, but the response was so good they ended up raising $30,000.

In nearby Piedmont, the city has installed license plate readers at key locations where traffic enters or leaves the city.

The cameras and their related software can tell if a car has been stolen or is wanted in a crime. Piedmont police then notify local departments to be on the lookout if the car has left their jurisdiction.

Along with recording licenses, the camera also photographs the car itself to help in identification, said Piedmont police Chief Rikki Goede.

“We have the ability to see what the whole car is and can immediately send information to all neighboring agencies,” she said.

Some residents have voluntarily informed police that they have home security cameras, Goede said, and many new surveillance systems can be controlled via a resident’s cellular phone.

“That is becoming more and more common around the Bay Area,” she said.

Oakland police Community Resource Officer Anthony Hutzol calls the cameras invaluable in helping police solve crimes that do not have witnesses.

Hutzol works in the Rockridge and Temescal neighborhoods and said that there are about 100 security cameras in the area.

Participation is voluntary but residents are always cooperative when investigators want to examine videos that can help solve a crime.

“I’ve never has anyone refuse me,” he said. “They are ready and willing to participate in crime fighting. We rely heavily on our community partnerships.”