On November 27, 2020 the Honorable Sylvia Jones, Solicitor General visited Cobourg’s Venture13 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre with David Piccini – MPP for Northumberland-Peterborough South, to announce that Cobourg Police Service (CPS) has received $200,000 from the Province through the Ontario Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) grant program.
Like many others in the community, they may wonder the scope of the project and what it entails.
Cobourg Police Chief Paul VandeGraaf recently spoke about the project with Today’s Northumberland and answered questions that may be of interest to the public.
This funding will support a project to implement a mesh network paired with an advanced analytical solution and will set the foundation for a scalable mesh ecosystem aimed at prevention, interdiction and enforcement for enhanced community well-being.
The total project amounting to almost $500,000 will be funded through the CCTV grant, the Policetech Accelerator, Northumberland CFDC and CPS. This Community Safety strategy embraces next generation technology and leverages the best of business, technology, communications and community partnerships to drive community safety through transformative police technologies.
The scope of the project will merge hardware (CCTV cameras) with advanced analytical capabilities that will integrate a Community Safety Network enabling rapid post-event response for victim identification and crime prevention. This first phase will lay the groundwork for a comprehensive solution that will look to eventually include data from a multitude of sources including Police, Municipal and Private.
Today’s Northumberland would like to thank Chief VandeGraaf for his time for the interview.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
