Police/DHS want residents to purchase SKYCOP cameras for their neighborhoods
OH - The Toledo Police Department and DHS is marketing a new surveillance tool you pay for!
A fund will make it possible for residents to purchase SkyCop cameras for their neighborhoods.
City council gave TPD the green light Tuesday to accept contributions from residents who want to purchase their own SkyCop camera and put it where they see fit.
From the SkyCop website:
"The SkyCop ® communications platform allows for unlimited expandability to multiple cameras and sensing devices that greatly increase your ability to conduct complete and total environmental surveillance. You will see increased public safety and crime detection since options using communications technology allow you to place surveillance monitoring equipment in crime hot zones. Our advanced technology increases responsiveness and leads to greater arrest and conviction rates."
SkyCop boasts many all-weather, 360 surveillance recording, data and intelligence gathering products and even area gunshot detection.
Memphis, Tennessee-based ESI Companies, Inc. is behind a quite creepy technology platform they call SkyCop, capable of enabling widespread, long-term surveillance across entire cities.
Ohio has deployed SkyCop as part of their Observation Research Intelligence Operations Network (ORION), and has plans to double the number of cameras to a total of 150 according to the Toledo Free Press.
Sergeant Joe Heffernan says there are specific requirements for where cameras can go. First, they need a signal, so they can't be placed near trees or buildings. They also must be put where electrical work can be done.
A camera can costs between $3,000 and $10,000. Sgt. Heffernan says they've been proven to help reduce crime.
"It will use our equipment. The camera will have a blue flashing light on it and it will feed to our Real Time Crime Center where our officers are monitoring them according to what's going on," Heffernan said. "It's a great way to reduce any type of criminal activity."
Sgt. Heffernan says the cameras require monthly maintenance. That responsibility, which runs up to $100 a month, will fall on the residents that purchased the camera.
Thanks to DHS grants Toledo houses its own 24/7 real time neighborhood crime center!
Others who have picked up SkyCop technologies include the city of Millington, Tennessee, Shelby County, Tennessee, Olive Branch, Mississippi and Brownsville, Texas.
If DHS/police have their way, we'll have our very own neighborhood fusion centers spying into rural Americans homes.
