Seaside Park Police Department Virtual Neighborhood Watch Program
The Seaside Park Police Department is launching a virtual neighborhood watch program by creating a voluntary registry of business’ and homeowners’ surveillance cameras systems, utilized to catch criminals.
This program maps out the locations of the cameras, so officers can find possible evidence faster. The directory does NOT allow officers to tap into private cameras, and would only indicate where the cameras are located. By registering your camera, the Department can quickly identify nearby cameras that may have captured criminal activity.
After registering your camera, you would only be contacted by the Seaside Park Police Department if there was a law enforcement related need in the vicinity of your security camera. Police personnel, if necessary, may request to view your camera footage in order to assist in the investigation. The directory will be confidential and only accessible to law enforcement.
Many business owners and residents currently operate surveillance systems at their businesses and/or homes. As crimes occur nearby, they are not always aware that their system may have captured information that could help solve the crime, thus keeping our community safer. In turn, the police are also not always aware who may or may not have this potentially vital information. The Police Department is requesting residents and businesses to register their privately-owned surveillance camera systems.
Using the geographic locations of the registered cameras, the Seaside Park Police Department will be able to directly email or call citizens in an area in which a crime occurred. A standard e-mail may ask the citizen to check their video surveillance system for a specific date and time for video capturing a suspect, getaway car, or a crime. If the citizen finds any video evidence, they can contact the Police Department to make arrangements for video retrieval. Installing video surveillance is a great example of community-police partnerships and is something we highly value as a police agency serving our community.
Interested citizens will be able to register their cameras by filling out a short application that is located on the Seaside Park Borough Website. The Seaside Park Police Department is committed to its partnership with the community and believes this is yet another powerful solution in fighting crime.