Cleveland wants to beef up security in places where children play, and it's turning to technology for help.

The city plans to spend $200,000 to install as many as 80 surveillance cameras at two city parks and six recreation centers this year. The cameras will monitor playgrounds, swimming pools and basketball courts, as well as hallways outside locker rooms.

City Councilman Ken Johnson wants to go even more high-tech next year and install devices that would scan the faces of anyone entering rec centers.

The scans would be matched with photos on file of parents and children who visit the centers.

The added security is meant to quell growing violence and threats at rec centers.

Two years ago, two youths were shot to death near the Lonnie Burten Recreation Center on East 46th Street.

In January, two young men were hospitalized after being shot in the parking lot at the Fairfax Recreation Center on East 82nd Street after a game of basketball.

Johnson, chairman of council's Parks and Recreation Committee, said parents also worry about sexual predators and other criminals entering recreation centers undetected.

Mayor Frank Jackson budgeted $500,000 this year to station off-duty police officers at 13 of the city's 22 rec centers, but council members say more security is needed.

"We want [kids] to be safe there because they're certainly not safe on the streets," Johnson said.

He said all 20 of his council colleagues have requested security cameras for their recreation centers and parks. Johnson's center on Woodland Avenue is the only one that has cameras indoors and out.

"They're the strongest deterrent," he said. "Nobody wants to be on camera doing something, because there's no way out."

Cities' embracing cameras as crime-fighting tools reflects a national trend. Chicago, for example, uses a network of 2,000 cameras to monitor streets, transit stations and public housing. And Mayor Richard Daley wants to add more.

Daley recently proposed requiring businesses open for more than 12 hours - such as bars and convenience stores - to install surveillance cameras.

Once cameras go up in Cleveland's rec centers, Johnson wants to add the 3-D facial scanners.

The technology is more than 99 percent accurate, according to a representative at Bioscrypt, a Canadian company that sells facial recognition systems.