Cochrane RCMP is asking for the help of residents in keeping the community safe through volunteering through their new Community Assisted Policing Through Use of Recorded Evidence (CAPTURE) program in the community.
The completely voluntary security camera registry program will work with residents and businesses where those who are registered can willingly share surveillance footage with the RCMP.
Cst. Clayton Gelinas said this new program can help RCMP officers be more efficient.
“Basically, how would work is if there was a crime or some sort of offence that was committed in an area, we can go back to the map of all the registered cameras,” Gelinas said. “And instead of us going door-to-door and knocking, we would still do that, it streamlines it for us because we know that there’s someone who has registered, so we can go right to that house.”
Gelinas assures that the program is volunteer-based and outlines that the RCMP will not have the ability to look through the cameras of anyone who participates.
“It’s simply phoning them and if they are willing to upload it for us, we would give them some sort of a storage device to be able to upload it to us,” he said. “So never in any way are we going to be able to look at their cameras.”
He also assures that that even the location of the cameras will be kept private, and the only people authorized to access any provided information will be security cleared RCMP members. In addition, any participants are able to withdraw from the program at any point in time.
Through the program, Gelinas said it will help keep the community safer while giving the community an excellent way to help combat crime in town.
“It’s going to be making us, the RCMP, more efficient as well as it’s just an excellent way for the community members to assist in fighting crime,” he said.
In terms of effectiveness, Gelinas said surveillance from members of the community is effective in helping solve crimes in the community.
“It’s already assisted in communities where it is in,” Gelinas said. “An example is a criminal harassment and damage to property file. Someone had some video evidence, and long story short, we were able to use that evidence to get a search warrant then arrest the suspects on file.”
Gelinas invites those who are interested in joining the CAPTURE program can register online by visiting www.ruralalbertacapture.ca.
