Pinellas upgrades property aerials

CLEARWATER - Pinellas County has had aerial images of your house for years. Now it can also look at it from all four sides.

"We can see the sides of buildings, we can look up slopes, we can actually see as if we're flying along looking outside the window of the plane," said Charlie Dye, who works for Pinellas Property Appraiser Pam Dubov.

The images come from cameras mounted under an airplane at 45 degree angles. The project was slated for next fiscal year, but Dubov moved it up after the the Deepwater Horizon oil well erupted.

"We wanted before and after photographs to be able to substantiate for tax purposes and for individual property owners what things looked like before any oil came on shore," Dubov explained.

Other county departments can also use the imaging package and are considering the possibilities. Dubov said Orange County law enforcers can access it in their cruisers.

A flyover after a hurricane would produce a quick damage assessment, including measurements of high water lines.

The primary purpose is to reduce the need for appraisers to physically drive to properties just to look at them. But there are no plans to make the new images available to the public online.

"When you have images of someone's backyard, I don't blame people for feeling like well you're helping bad guys case my house from your website," Dubov said.