Local residents will have the opportunity to help members of  the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) solve crimes in Prince Edward County.

The Prince Edward County Detachment  has announced it’s partnering with the Belleville Police Service to join the CAMSafe program.

CAMSafe, a community CCTV and security video registry, was established by the Belleville Police Service in June of 2021 to great success and community engagement. The program is now expanding into other communities across the province including the Quinte West OPP Detachment.

The pilot project in the Friendly City was inspired by similar projects in Red Deer Alberta (reddeercapture.ca) and Philadelphia (safecam.phillypolice.com). CAMsafe sought to bring a registry to the next level through community sponsorship and integration.

In 2020, Alarm Systems (alarmsys.com) partnered with Belleville Police and leading-edge web designers Floating Point (floating-point.com) to develop a separate, innovative website to house the initiative. In early 2021 as the project set to launch, partnerships were developed with government agencies and commercial businesses to ensure registered locations of cameras encompassed all regions and areas of the municipality.

County residents who wish to partner with police in solving crimes in their community can go to CAMSafe.ca and register video cameras/ doorbell cameras. Only basic details, such as a name, address and contact information are necessary to participate.

This is a voluntary, community-driven program and participants can add or delete their information at any time and only police have access to your details.

CAMSafe is designed to provide a starting point for officers to obtain video footage to assist an investigation. For example, if a crime occurs in your neighbourhood, an officer can log into CAMSafe, determine who has cameras registered and request footage from the owners.

There is no direct access to cameras or account information through CAMSafe – it is only a directory for officers to utilize during investigations to locate the owners of potential footage.

Prince Edward County OPP encourages residents and businesses to register their cameras on CAMSafe.ca. Together, we can help to reduce crime in our community.

For more information related to CAMSafe, visit CAMSafe.ca

-Staff