More closed circuit television cameras are being installed in Cobourg.
Today’s Northumberland reached out to Cobourg Police Paul VandeGraaf on Thursday, October 27, 2022 about the ongoing project.
“We’re really pretty excited about the signs and the cameras going up.”
VandeGraaf said there will be a more in-depth announcement with the cameras, but shared there will be at least 20 cameras installed at various locations throughout Cobourg.
“The ones your seeing out are put out based on crime analytics, issues of community need and community locations.”
Workers were installing the rest of the cameras on Thursday at various locations including Division Street at Densmore Road/Vernonica Street.
“We’ve just received some information about some potentially new provincial funding that we’re going to take this project to the next level and really put us on the map of having a good community mesh network about safety.”
Cameras are situated at various locations throughout the town and VandeGraaf said there has been a lot of background work done on the project.
“All the analytic software, so we’re able to do filtering, tie in personal, private, public cameras into the mesh network we’d be able to track a person through all sorts of footage.”
Staff have been hired as a result of the technology and VandeGraaf said, “we’re ready to go with the cameras in place.”
Previously there were a number of cameras installed in the downtown area and VandeGraaf said, “we’ve already had some good success in some of our issues. I’ve been working with some community members because they are aware of this project, and they want one on a street post near them.”
Another benefit of the project is cameras that are installed at various locations are mobile and can be moved throughout the town.
“Then we have the whole “secret” cameras, that we use, that aren’t really publicly facing. They are there for maybe measuring traffic counts.”
VandeGraaf assures the cameras aren’t collecting anything they shouldn’t be and are more for measuring speed enforcement activities.
Admitting the project has taken a bit longer than he’d hoped, VandeGraaf wants to ensure the public, “these are passively monitored cameras. The operations centre is staffed by people, but we’re not monitoring the camera. It’s after the fact. That being said, if we were to have a large community event or some sort of protest we were worried about – we could go “real time” with the cameras including our body worn cameras. It’s a whole different set of privacy standards and we’d have to communicate to the public that we’re doing it.”
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
