Allegheny County will receive $750,000 in federal funding to expand a security and surveillance camera system, which officials say will be used not only to track criminals but in emergencies like fires, floods, or potential cases of bioterrorism.

Standing in the courtyard of the county courthouse yesterday, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter and county Emergency Services Chief Bob Full announced the grant, saying it's high time the county implemented what is now a standard law enforcement tool in cities like London and Tel Aviv.

"We saw how law enforcement officials in London were able to track the suspects using their surveillance system [during the July 2005 terrorist attack]," Mr. Full said.

Right now, the county has 64 stationary cameras, which are equipped with gas and chemical detectors already in place in the greater Pittsburgh area. Mr. Full said the federal grant will enable the county to purchase an additional 40 mobile camera units and to link them all together in a closed-circuit network.

The federal funding, which was the county's highest priority request from the Justice Department, will allow the county expand its camera surveillance network, known as the ThreatViewer Emergency Management Visualization System.

ThreatViewer, features a map-based interface software program that enables sound, movement and images to be analyzed and used from video surveillance cameras, environmental threat sensors and communications systems.

"This kind of system is long overdue for us," Mr. Full said, adding that "it will be critical because now our police officers who have data mobile units in their cars will be able to tap into the camera network and have a sense of what is going on before they get to a crime scene."

The goal of ThreatViewer -- considered to be one of the biggest camera surveillance programs at the county level -- is to incorporate not only county police, the sheriff's office, city and municipality police departments but also would link with private entities that have surveillance cameras.

Mr. Specter, who was on a town-hall swing through the state, said the funds, which are designated in the Senate's Appropriations Committee bill, will most likely be released sometime in the fall when that bill is approved by Congress.

A former prosecutor, Mr. Specter said he pushed for the funding because surveillance cameras have been proven to be "the fastest way to identify violent crime and move against it."

Mr. Full said the mobile camera units, which are built by Augusta Systems Inc., of Morgantown, will be used for more than monitoring crime hot-spots.

For example, the cameras may be set up in a flood-prone area ahead of a big rainstorm to help first responders determine how to approach an area devastated by flood waters.

Mr. Full said ThreatViewer will be implemented and used with strict guidelines, which will limit its use to law enforcement purposes. But county officials have not yet determined whether they will need to spell out a privacy policy concerning how the surveillance system will be used, he added.

Pittsburgh City Council recently approved a privacy policy for the camera system proposed by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration to watch public areas, starting Downtown and on the riverfronts and bridges, and later expanding into neighborhoods.