Concord PD Asks Residents, Businesses To Register Surveillance Cameras

By Tony Hicks, Bay City News Service

CONCORD, CA — Concord Police are asking residents and businesses to join what they call a new police-community partnership known as the Community Electronic Eye — CEE —Program.

Police say the goal is to help "solve crime" with the help of the community's private video cameras.

Participation in this program is voluntary and free. Police are asking community members to register their privately-owned surveillance camera systems. As officers investigate criminal incidents, they may be able to use footage gathered from community cameras.

A statement on the city's website, police say, "Officers going door to door during an investigation is time-consuming, especially when time is of the essence to solve a crime. One solution is knowing where security cameras are located, so if a crime occurs near a registered camera, officers can quickly contact the camera owner and work with them to view and recover video if needed."

Police say that the CEE program will allow them to contact private community members and ask to see footage that they may have collected.

Concord Police said participation in the program does not provide the department "direct access to your camera system or footage."

The site also says that any information they gather through the footage is for official use only and that personal information will be kept confidential and will not be made for public dissemination.

"Our goal is to empower residents by taking a community-wide approach to policing. We hope that you will join us in this initiative and help protect the community we all care about," they said.

To find out more or to register, go to Cityofconcord.org/1001/Camera-Registry.

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