Some historians believe that the Vandals—the Germanic barbarians who sacked Rome in 455 A.D.—have an undeserved reputation for wholesale and wanton destruction.
When Rome’s leaders conceded defeat to King Genseric and opened the city gates that fateful year, the Vandals mostly kept their promise to spare citizen’s lives and refrain from burning down the city.
In Bridgeville, however, vandals have a well-earned and well-documented reputation for being an incredible—and incredibly expensive—pain in the ass, especially in the borough’s parks.
In just the past year or two, swings were on fire at Bridgeville parks. A scoreboard was ripped apart. Bathrooms were spray-painted. Single incidents of vandalism have cost Bridgeville upwards of $4,000 to fix.
Now, with a major bathroom upgrade coming to Chartiers Park, councilman Joe Colosimo hopes to deter vandals—or at least help police identify and arrest them—by installing security cameras throughout Bridgeville’s parks, starting with Chartiers Park.
“This stuff doesn’t happen every week,” Colosimo said, “but [Chartiers Park] gets hit quite a bit. There have been some people in the past saying cameras don’t work, but [cameras] catch criminals all of the time, and putting a camera there isn’t going to kill us.”
Police chief Chad King suggested placing additional cameras at park entrances to capture vehicle information, including license plates, as people enter and leave.