Police Pitch Surveillance Camera Registry To AH Council

Craig Bakay | Jan 10, 2024

Connecting investigators with evidence in the community, Camsafe is a web-based registry of contact information for owners of security cameras and doorbell cams, Belleville Police Services SSgt. Jeremy Ashley told Addington Highlands Council at its regular meeting Dec. 19 in Denbigh. Ashley was filling in for OPP detachment commander Shawn Trudeau in giving the presentation as Ashley was one of the originators of the program.

“When we launched it in our community, it became so popular that OPP detachments around us started asking ‘how can we get involved to grow this’ and it became a provincial program,” Ashley said. “When I started this (in June of 2021), I wanted to provide an opportunity for communities to partner with police to solve crime.”

He said that when an officer is called to a break and enter at a seasonal cottage, home or car accident, one of the first things the officer looks for is video evidence.

“It could be a doorbell camera, a camera on a municipal building or a business,” he said. “Finding that evidence could be difficult.

“The primary goal for Camsafe is sourcing video evidence.”

He said that what Camsafe is is a registry of video camera locations in your community.

“An unintended benefit has been the community support behind it,” he said.

He said that police do not have access to your camera and there is no obligation to share camera footage. When a crime is committed, the officer can log on to the Camsafe database and search the area for those who have registered a camera.

The officer can then make contact and request video footage from the property owner, he said.

“There’s a public side and a police side,” he said. “If a member of the public logs in, they can only see their information, nothing else. And that information is only their contact information.”

He said you’re under no obligation to provide video “but if something really bad happened, a judge could issue a warrant to see that information.”

He said they had an attempted abduction in Belleville a couple of weeks ago and Camsafe was used to provide a video spreadsheet of people who may have video information that was given to an investigator.

“The OPP are planning on rolling out a program this spring with seasonal cottage owners because they’ve found it’s really difficult to find owners of cottages,” he said. “They can roll up to a cottage where’s there’s been a break-in and there are cameras everywhere but if can be difficult to find the owners of the cottages.”

He said Cansave is hosted by the Belleville Police Services and there is no cost to police agencies but they’d like to have it taken over by a not-for-profit in order to expand the areas serviced.

“If you want to sign up and participate, great,” he said. “If you don’t want to, that’s OK, it’s not for everybody.

“But, in my view, people install these cameras for a reason.”

“I think this looks like an amazing program,” said Coun. Ken Hook. “I live on a lake and there are cottages all around and I do have a video system.

“I think this could be very valuable.”

Hook suggested that Ashley might want to make a presentation to the five or so lake associations in the Township.

“Taking a drive to cottage country in the summer . . . sign me up,” Ashley said. “I’m all about that.”

Firefighter Recruitment

Fire Chief Casey Cuddy talked Council into Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. in the Denbigh Community Centre to talk to anyone interested in helping out with the Denbigh fire detachment.

“I talked to some of the firefighters and apparently Wednesdays don’t work because Survivor is on,” he joked. Jan. 23 is a regular training night.

Cuddy said he’s prepared to give a presentation on what’s involved in becoming a firefighter and what the detachment needs to continue.

“If we don’t get the interest from the community, we’ll have to look at the service provided,” he said.

Emergency Preparedness

Fire Chief Casey Cuddy told Council he’d received an email congratulating the Township on its emergency preparedness compliance.