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Police seek public’s help to set up security camera database

Residents are asked to sign up their outdoor security cameras, such as those on doorbells, to camsafe.ca
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An OPP advertisement for CamSafe, which Greater Sudbury Police Service has recently signed up for.

Greater Sudbury Police are looking for the public’s assistance in setting up a citywide network of security cameras.

The project is simple: register your outdoor security cameras, including doorbell cameras, online at CamSafe.ca, including their location.

If police are investigating a crime in your neighbourhood, they’ll know who to reach out to for surveillance footage, which can cut down significantly on investigation time.

That’s basically it, Staff Sgt. Sherry Young explained to Sudbury.com.

“Essentially, we’re going to be using this program to assist in our investigations,” she said. 

“Normally what we do is knock on neighbouring doors to see if anyone has information, to see if anybody has cameras or any assistive information that can move it forward in our investigation.”

This can take hours or longer, depending on when people are home, which she said can be “counterproductive for a police organization.”

An online database of camera locations can be “greatly assistive for a policing organization,” she said, adding that now police will know who might have surveillance footage right off the hop.

The main challenge in compiling a database of private cameras is getting public buy-in.

That’s why GSPS issued a media release last week to encourage people to sign up.

“The database is only going to be as good as the community’s participation,” Young said. “We can only keep our community safe by working together, and really it’s our community assisting police in solving crime ... We think it’s an effective tool for our organization.”

One example of a crime type which residents’ surveillance footage has helped solve has been hit-and-runs, she said, noting that if not for video footage of these incidents police would unlikely be able to solve them.

CamSafe was launched by Belleville Police Service in 2021 and has been adopted by several other police agencies since that time, including the OPP. It doesn’t come at a cost to police agencies, signing up is voluntary and it’s up to residents whether they submit footage upon a police agency's request.

“It allows police officers, whether they're investigating break-ins in whatever part of the city or a major crime to call up CamSafe on their phone, in their vehicle, or in their work station, and geo-fence an area, see a map and see who's registered,” Belleville Sgt. Jeremy Ashley explained in a media interview with inquinte.ca for the program’s 2021 launch.

“It’s all voluntary, so there's no onus on the person to provide anything to police, it's just a matter of us connecting with them, that is the first step in an investigation.”

Only police will have access to the database, and police cannot remotely access your camera. 

The service rolled out to all Ontario police services in 2023, and such places as Peterborough, Hanover, Saugeen Shores and Kawartha Lakes police services have all signed on in recent months.

For more information on registering, including frequently asked questions and some additional background information on the program, click here.

Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.