Courtesy of Belleville Police Service.
Belleville Police have launched a new tool that brings neighbourhood watch to a whole new level.
Sergeant Jeremy Ashley has come up with an idea called CAMSafe. He was joined by Belleville Mayor Mitch Panciuk today as apart of an outdoor announcement at Jane Forrester Park.
CAMSafe is a system where community members, businesses and residents, can register their own video surveillance camera that they may have around their property. If officers in Belleville are investigating an incident, they can call up the website on their phones and try to figure out what cameras are around for them to access.
The program only asks for basic information like how to contact the owner and where the camera is, and what it faces. Anyone in Belleville can sign up for free and delete their account at any time.
“All this program is aimed at doing is providing a starting point for police officers to find video footage to assist an investigation. Only police have access to the database of registrants. For example, if there was a break and enter to a home on a city street, the investigating officer could log onto CAMSafe and, much like Google Maps, geofence an area and see if there are anyone who has registered a camera in the area. From that point, the officer – using the contact information provided – would request the footage from the owner. This type of information would be considered critical and extremely timely during a major event such as a kidnapping or robbery with a weapon,” said Belleville Police in a statement.
Belleville Police teamed up with Alarm Systems and a local web design company called Floating Point to come up with the platform.
Anyone who has CCTV cameras can register by visiting CamSafe.ca
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