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OGDEN — Police in Ogden could be watching you more often.
The agency is building a “real time crime center,” which will integrate security cameras from private businesses and government buildings.
Critics may call it a case of "Big Brother," but police say it will help reduce crime.
“We’ve had cameras up for years. This is just finding a way to use them a little better,” said Ogden Police Chief John Greiner.
Currently, 180 cameras keep an eye on the city of Ogden. Officers watch the footage from a room inside police headquarters.
Soon, they could have access to hundreds of additional cameras.
Greiner says he’s working with the Utah Department of Transportation and the Utah Transit Authority to include feeds from their cameras. Police will also approach business owners who have outside cameras.
Footage taken from its new crime blimp, set to launch this spring, will also be fed into the crime center.
Police say the purpose of the crime center is to consolidate its databases so that information such as warrants and driver's licenses would be immediately accessible to the person manning the center.
That person would then send the information to officers responding to crime scenes.
“That’s what real time crime center is all about, hooking databases together and making things available for the officer in the field,” Greiner said.
The center is modeled after one in Memphis, Tenn., which is one of about 20 U.S. cities that have one.
A video posted on YouTube shows how the camera system has worked there. The video shows surveillance from a hotel security camera. Memphis police, who have a link to that video, see a man loitering in the hotel parking lot.
The officer, who is monitoring the video, sees the man break the car window and steal things inside the car. The officer dispatches patrol cars so before the burglar and his accomplice can get too far, officers are there.
The idea that the cameras can help solve crimes appeals to business owners like John Graves, owner of Red Duck Enterprises in Ogden.
“If we can make people aware of what’s going on downtown and these petty criminals can feel intimidated, that’d be great,” Graves said.
“I would have to find out a little bit more of the parameters of their operation so that I could feel comfortable that it’s not invading people’s privacy too much,” Graves said.
Privacy is an issue as well for the ACLU, which has expressed concerns about the real time crime center and the blimp.
“Given the more recent updates about security cameras and the other tools that will comprise the “real time crime center,” we find the events in Ogden even more concerning — both in terms of unwarranted invasions of privacy and unnecessary costs to the taxpayers,” said Karen McCreary, the executive director of the ACLU.
Story written by Sandra Yi, with contributions from Keith McCord
