A new program launched by the Fairfax County Police Department hopes to take advantage of the increasing popularity of Ring doorbells and other at-home security systems.
Connect Fairfax County, announced by the department at the end of January, will allow law enforcement to leverage surveillance cameras to hopefully speed up investigations.
The voluntary program is comprised of two different options. Under the first, residents can register their cameras with the FCPD’s Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC) via an online portal, contributing to a map that will show responding officers where to go for a jump-start on fact-finding.
“Normally what we would do is go out to a location and knock on doors and ask someone, ‘Hey, do you have a camera that might have captured a crime that occurred in this area?” FCPD Capt. Hudson Bull said.
“What this program does is expedite that by showing us where exactly a camera is and making it so that we … could provide that digital evidence to one of our responding detectives even before they get on the scene.”
The second option takes it a step further. Camera owners can permit the FCPD to have direct access to their cameras, allowing law enforcement to view live footage with the touch of a button.
Primarily intended for businesses, the second option requires the camera owner to buy a fususCORE device, starting at $350 with an annual $150 fee.
By allowing the FCPD direct access to cameras, investigators can more effectively tackle much more than crime: missing persons cases, for example, according to Capt. Kent Bailey.
“Solving crime is definitely paramount, but this program also reaches past that,” Bailey said.” … We can also go past just crimes, where we can find critical missing persons, review suspicious activities, suspicious events, suspicious persons.”
As of last Thursday (Feb. 6), 50 cameras had been registered under the program’s first option, according to Bull.
“We’re constantly looking at ways to be innovative and making sure that we get ahead of a problem before it starts,” Bull said. “This is another enhancement of a program where we can collect digital evidence, which makes our cases stronger, which helps us solve cases faster, to get ahead of problems before they start.”
Residents can learn more about the program and register or integrate their own cameras at connectfairfaxcounty.org.
