The City’s Community Cam Program
On July 30, 2015, the Takoma Park Police Department announced a new crime fighting/prevention tool which detectives can use in partnership with the community to assist in solving crimes. Today’s video technologies have become commonplace and affordable, creating a proliferation of video systems in both commercial and residential applications. The systems oftentimes provide critical evidence in criminal cases as well as helping to prevent crime. Traditionally, investigators knock door to door, looking for witnesses and evidence. Our Community Cam Program will streamline and enhance this process.
The new Community Cam Program allows members of the community who live in the City of Takoma Park to register any residential or commercial video surveillance system with the Police Department free of charge. If and when a crime occurs in an area of a registered camera system, detectives will have immediate access to the location of any registered cameras on their mobile devices. This will allow them to quickly obtain valuable video evidence to enhance apprehension capabilities.
Working in partnership with the owner of the system is just one more tool in the police-community partnership to make Takoma Park a safe community. The registration information is confidential and can only be accessed by detectives and the police department’s crime analyst. Participation is voluntary, and the system owner may withdraw at any time.
Takoma Park Police is the first department in the Washington Metropolitan area to institute this type of program. There are other programs in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Ventura, California and Lenexa, Kansas that are similar to the Community Cam Program and have proven to be effective crime fighting tools. The registration process is three steps and takes about five minutes to complete. For more information or to register, visit the Community Cam website: communitycam.takomaparkmd.gov.
The use of technology in crime fighting is essential, and this is a great way to involve our community members in actively assisting in our efforts to make our city safer.
This article appeared in the March 2016 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter. The Takoma Park Newsletter is available for download here.
