Would You Let Your Community Use Your Security Camera?
By: Home Security News
Tags: Crime, Security Camera, Home Security

Cameras are among the most important pieces of home security equipment, and they make up part of most security systems. As well as being a deterrent and allowing people to keep an eye on their home and its surroundings, the cameras provide video footage that’s used by law enforcement to catch and prosecute criminals.

But how would you feel about allowing your camera to be used for community safety as well as the safety of your own home?

These schemes are becoming more popular, and they are an extension of the idea of “neighborhood watch” that has been around for many decades. Communities have pooled their resources to keep a collective eye on the neighborhood as honest people try to keep each other safe.

Tennessee

Police in Germantown, TN, are starting up a home security camera registry in conjunction with license plate-reading cameras to keep the area safer. Registration of home security cameras would be voluntary, and even someone who registers would still have to give consent for police to access specific footage.

“When we have an incident or a crime, it’s become a matter of practice to see if a business or anywhere has some video that can help us. So many people today have cameras at their houses,” said Germantown Deputy Police Chief Rodney Bright. “We’re looking to see how we can take advantage of that.”

If police can quickly access the register and find out exactly where home security cameras are located around the city, they will know which house’s camera is likely to have picked up footage of a crime. They can then request access to the footage from the owner.

Missouri

The St. Charles County Police Department in Missouri is conducting a similar scheme, asking the public to “assist them in safeguarding their communities by registering their privately owned video surveillance systems with our new Community Camera Program.”

The scheme is described as a “a time-saving resource to help St. Charles County Police investigators be aware of surveillance systems in the area.” In other words, similarly to Germantown, the idea is for police to have a quickly accessible record of where home security cameras are if they need footage from a certain area.

Homeowners would still need to give permission for the footage to be submitted even if they had registered their cameras, although once they have agreed to that it seems they couldn’t withdraw it from being used in court proceedings. If the recording is useful to law enforcement, they need to go ahead use it as necessary without consulting the original owners at every stage.

On the surface, these schemes seem like a very effective way of helping to keep neighborhoods safer, particularly if they help to remove criminals from the streets. There will no doubt be complaints in some quarters about privacy issues.

For example, a neighbor of someone in the scheme might not particularly like the idea that their quiet little street or even the exterior of their home is in the background on footage that is being carefully studied in court. That being said, different states have different laws on whether or not it’s even allowable for someone’s camera to be pointing at a neighbor’s property.

Conclusion

Almost all security issues raise questions of necessity vs privacy, and cause people to ask whether any impingement upon civil rights is worth the benefits that come from keeping people safer. It seems likely that a majority of people will be in favor of a scheme run by law enforcement to keep their neighborhood safe, but the extent of uptake across the country remains to be seen.