The Evesham Township Police Department has a request for all Evesham residents and businesses that currently utilize private video surveillance systems and wish to assist the police force with its daily operations — just let the department know.
Earlier this year, the E.T.P.D. made national headlines with its requirement of body cameras to be worn by all patrol officers, and now the department is hoping to expand its use of video cameras in daily operations with a request that residents and businesses register their private video surveillance systems with the department.
With a large and up-to-date list of known, private surveillance systems within the township, police say the department would have a better chance of obtaining footage of crimes that occur near those systems and a better chance of apprehending and prosecuting the criminals responsible.
The E.T.P.D. says it is not always aware of what resident or business in an area might have a surveillance system that captured evidence of a crime, and, in turn, residents and businesses might not always know the crimes took place nearby and that they could be in possession of evidence.
Lt. Joseph Friel said asking residents and businesses if they would be willing to register their surveillance systems is a new strategy for the department and a more proactive approach.
“This is the first time we have been trying to be proactive about it and know who we can get good surveillance from,” Friel said.
According to Friel, with video surveillance technology so prevalent, tracking down people’s private surveillance cameras near the area of a crime scene has become a daily occurrence officers undertake as part of their investigations.
“It’s every day,” Friel said. “There’s not a day that goes by that we’re not looking at surveillance footage from somewhere in connection to a crime.”
Friel said both businesses and residents are welcomed to register their systems with the department, as most of the businesses the department deals with have camera systems, but an increasing number of private residences have surveillance systems as well.
“As we’ve seen now as the price comes down, a lot of residential homes have their own surveillance systems,” Friel said. “You’d just be blown away when we canvas an area how many have their own surveillance system on the exterior of their house.”
Once a system is registered with the department, Friel said if police believe a system may have caught footage of a nearby crime, officers could simply contact the owner of the system and set up a time to collect the footage.
“If we have their contact information already in place, and they’ve already agreed that they want to work with the police, we could easily call them and set up a time to stop by and get that,” Friel said.
Friel also said the registration process would assist police in obtaining surveillance footage before it’s automatically deleted from recording devices after a set amount of time, a feature of most surveillance systems used by residents and businesses in town.
“It deletes stuff,” Friel said. “You’re not recording that information forever. So it really is important that we can get in touch with those people as soon as possible to see if their surveillance system has any crucial information on it.”
Friel said any information provided to the department would be for official use only, and personal information would remain confidential and not be for public dissemination.
Police ask those interested in participating to register camera systems at www.surveymonkey.com/s/GBKQWLH.
