Mayor wants residents to help APD by registering their home surveillance with police

ATLANTA — Mayor Andre Dickens want neighbors to help police fight crime by connecting or registering their home surveillance with law enforcement officials.

Dickens says to fight crime, he needs every single camera in Atlanta connected to the Atlanta Police Department.

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He said they’ve done a good job so far, but they can do better.

“This police department will always be doing the dangerous and difficult on behalf of our citizens, but this program will make the difference,” interim police chief Darin Scheribaum said.

Scheribaum is talking about the city’s camera integration system called ‘Connect Atlanta’. He wants people and businesses to register their doorbell cameras or security systems with the police department.

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“Your participation is truly invaluable,” Dickens said.

They showed this video of a May 14 shootout.

Because officers had access to cameras in the area, they were quickly able to catch one of the suspects and issued warrants for the rest.

“If it were not for the cameras, all we would’ve done was gone out and captured shell casings and we wouldn’t have had a clue what happened, because nobody stayed on scene,” Deputy Chief Michael O’Connor said.

In March, Channel 2 Action News told you about the departments new connect Atlanta video system, but since then, only 3,200 people have registered their cameras and about 5,800 cameras are integrated with the police department.

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“We’re trying to get the world out, because it hasn’t gone as quickly as we thought that it would,” O’Connor said.

Privacy concerns could be an issue, but O’Connor says police can only access your cameras if you give them permission.

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