About 10 security cameras installed in a 10-block area of downtown Canton went live the second week of March, said Lt. John Gabbard of the Canton Police Department. The cameras, another at 10th Street and Shorb Avenue NW, and yet another at Fulton Road and 14th Street NW, constantly are recording video maintained on the same server as the police body-camera footage, which the department keeps for at least 30 days.
The city purchased the cameras for $40,200 from Jackson Township-based ProTech Security, according to a Feb. 6 article in The Canton Repository.
Gabbard and other police officials can use a laptop computer to monitor those areas at any time — and even play back high-quality video recordings for specific periods of time.
More extensive plans for using video are in the works.
Gabbard said officials plan to install a wall of monitors at the city's Communications Center so dispatchers can see what's going on in real time.
"The emerging technology gives us the ability to have a video wall to look at many cameras together at the same time," the lieutenant said.
Police also plan to connect the camera system to the Patrol Division's license plate readers and to the Shotspotter gunshot alert system, hoping to catch people and vehicles driving through the area before, during and after gunshots are fired.
Because internet-capable cameras eventually can tie into the system, officials plan to ask business owners and residents for help as early as this summer.
"We want to reach out to residents and businesses that have cameras and ask what view their cameras have," Gabbard said, adding that many business owners and homeowners aim their own personal security cameras at driveways and streets surrounding their homes.
"People take a lot of time and money putting their video systems together, and we get great video sometimes of cars involved in shootings and of getaway vehicles," he said. Some crime victims have sent video and photos to the police on their anonymous Tip411 line.
The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office's criminal analysis unit already registers residents who are willing to help, Gabbard said. Investigators there can access the locations of cameras from Google Maps, enabling them to know who to ask for video should a crime occur.
"When we get more software in place, possibly this summer, we will be asking residents who would like to register their cameras with us in case we need help," Gabbard said. Private cameras tied into the system will enable officers summoned to see what's going on just before, during and after their arrival.
Of course, participation requires permission from residents and business owners who have the cameras.
But when it's all in place, the video system "would tie into cameras that are compatible, such as Canton City Schools, hospitals, the Hall of Fame village ... Once we get the right software, we can tie all those systems together," Gabbard said.
©2017 The Repository, Canton, Ohio Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
