CHICOPEE — Residents and businesses in Chicopee are invited to participate a new public-private crime mitigation and safety initiative put forth by the Chicopee Police Department.
The Chicopee Police Department recently announced the official launch of its latest public safety initiative, a Real Time Crime Center in the Cloud platform designed to provide critical and actionable information that speeds up investigations, emergency response and keeps residents and businesses safer.
The program is powered by Fusus and includes a camera registry for an online portal for citizens to register their security cameras in order to help solve crimes in the community.
Chicopee Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Watson talked more about the program.
He said, “Fusus is going to allow the Chicopee Police Department to operate more efficiently, effectively and with improved operational intelligence. Connected communities are safer communities.”
Both residential and commercial property owners and businesses are invited to register their security cameras. Registrant information and any video files provided will be kept confidential and only used in the event of a criminal investigation or emergency incident.
Readers interested in registering or integrating your camera system with the Chicopee Police Department or to learn more about Connect Chicopee, can visit www.connectchicopee.org and follow the instructions.
In addition to the camera registry, the Chicopee Police Department is offering residents the option to upgrade their video security systems to include live video feeds to the department. By installing a small CORE device on their network, residents and businesses can share live video feeds with the Chicopee Police Department in emergencies to improve employee safety and police response.
To preserve privacy, live video can optionally be shared only on alert, using a smartphone app or manual trigger button, at the camera owner’s discretion. This upgrade can be requested following the camera registration process online.
The Chicopee Police Department is hoping that residents will register their cameras and help create a community-wide public safety ecosystem because setting up a voluntary camera registration process eliminates the need for door-to-door canvassing and police officers can use that valuable time somewhere else.
The Chicopee Police Department is enabling their investigators to know almost immediately if video evidence might be available at a particular location and who to contact to retrieve it.
Mayor John Vieau talked about the initiative and said, “Everybody knows that public safety is paramount to the success of Chicopee, and we believe that this tool will keep Chicopee even safer.”
Camera registration does not give live video access to the Chicopee Police Department. It only gives them camera location information for use when an incident occurs. Investigators will contact camera owners only if they need assistance collecting camera footage.
In the event of a theft for example, police may request from a store owner a recorded video to quicken the process of evidence gathering.
In order to help members of the community register their cameras as part of this voluntary program, the Chicopee Police Department will also be conducting a community outreach program by phone.
Community Connect Advocates will be reaching out to local businesses to inform them about the program and registering cameras over the phone if the owners wish to participate.
