The Spokane Airport Board has awarded a contract for almost $1.7 million to Pick Electric Inc., of Spokane, for the installation of more than 100 security cameras at Spokane International Airport that will be paid for by the federal Transportation Security Administration.

The new cameras will replace a camera system that was installed for TSA at the airport seven years ago in a pilot project, says Chris Cox, the agency's customer service director at SIA. That system "wasn't robust enough," Cox says. He says the new system will be paid for with federal economic-stimulus money.

"We've kind of limped along with this seven-year-old system," Cox says.

Pick Electric has been in business here since the mid-1980s and is based at 4805 N. Florida, says Vice President Ken Priddy, who owns the company with his brothers, Todd and Brian, and father, Pat.

"We have about 20 wiremen in the field," Priddy says.

Cox says the new system will feature cameras that can tilt, pan, and zoom via remote control as needed to provide different views. The new cameras will augment others Spokane International Airport already has, and while the airport will operate the entire system on a routine basis, TSA will be able to take over control of the system if a security breach occurs or is suspected. Cox says that in such a case, the cameras will be manipulated to provide views as necessary to meet surveillance needs.

Most of the time, the new cameras will be directed toward TSA and other airport-security areas, including luggage-inspection areas and areas where K-9 unit dogs sniff bags for explosives, Cox says. He says that if an airline passenger claims that something has been stolen from his or her suitcase or maintains that the bag was damaged as it was handled, TSA will be able to review footage of the handling of a bag and advise the passenger whether to file a claim or that no damage or theft occurred while security staff handled the bag.

"Security is the top reason" for installation of the cameras, even though the system can address customer-service issues, too, he says.

The same type of camera system has been installed at other U.S. airports, and Cox says he's talked with security officials at those airports about the system.

"It makes the airline passengers and the TSA extremely happy," he says.

Pick Electric already is ordering parts for the system and getting infrastructure and conduit ready to install the cameras, and TSA expects that the project will be completed by the end of this summer, Cox says. He says that when Pick Electric completes its work, the cameras will be owned by the airport.

"We get a beefier system; they get ownership of it," he says.

Airport spokesman Todd Woodard says, "TSA provides all the money and has an agreement with us on what they're going to do. These are security cameras that are next generation."

The cameras are used for surveillance in particular areas of the airport, but "have nothing to do with looking at what's on your person," Woodard says.

The Spokane Airport Board also authorized the spending of up to $130,000 to address contingencies that might arise during construction.