Your parking meter might be watching you. The bus you take can record your conversations. And overhead, drones are looking down on all of us.
Camera surveillance is big business. In recent years, local law enforcement agencies have been using the latest technology to help them solve crimes. Minneapolis, Maplewood and Duluth police departments have all contracted with a Twin Cities-based company, SecuroNet, to help them locate and coordinate video footage from private outdoor security cameras.
Dan Zell, SecuroNet president, said the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) was one of the first to use the company’s Virtual Safety Network, a free voluntary program through which business owners and residents can register their own security cameras with the police. When a crime is committed, officers use a registry to quickly locate cameras near a crime scene.
And, the system works: according to a MPD press release dated July 8, 2015, when violence broke out at a St. Patrick’s Day celebration, police were able to access 61 cameras owned by 21 businesses. Zell said the police quickly apprehended the offenders.
The same press release attributed the increased interest in security cameras to the Boston Marathon bombing, where people were critical of the length of time it took police to catch the suspects. “Boston bombing investigators went door to door asking who had cameras and how to get access to them,” it stated.
A KSTP-TV news report in January 2017 described the Maplewood Police Department’s work with SecuroNet: “If a crime occurs, police can type in an address and see where there are cameras. After that, investigators fill out a form and get permission from businesses to use their camera video.”
Cameras in the suburbs
Closer to home, Columbia Heights and St. Anthony have been having some success with cooperative businesses and homeowners willing to share their security camera footage. While St. Anthony doesn’t have a formal program to sign up cameras, Captain Jeff Spiess said some residents have approached police when there has been a crime committed in their neighborhood.
“We have used cameras that residents have mounted outside their houses to help us solve crimes,” he said. “We’re excited for the technology. I anticipate that we may pursue something with Columbia Heights in the future.”
Columbia Heights Police Chief Lenny Austin said the city has been asking residents with security cameras to register them with the police. “The nice thing about technology is that the cost of security systems has gone down. We have cleared up several crimes—residential break-ins and business burglaries, for instance—with the help of private security cameras. It has been helpful, because burglaries can be challenging. Any time you can get videos, it helps with our cases.
“We’re slowly working our way on the database,” Austin added. “We also have crime mapping software, which is a predictive analytical program. When you have a group of similar cases, you can dump all that data into the program, and it helps us narrow the area where the person might hit again. We caught a serial burglar that way.”
Austin said today, cameras are everywhere. “In addition to surveillance cameras, we get a lot of information from MnDOT (Minneapolis Department of Transportation), because most MTC buses have audio. Anoka County has a couple of drones.”
SecuroNet at the Super Bowl
Zell said SecuroNet is about to use its new and advanced mobile app, Field Watch—which they tested at the X Games and the Twin Cities Marathon—on police officers’ phones. “The app enables them to live stream incidents. Cops can deploy it immediately on their phones. It gives them a viewpoint at any given step. The command can see where the officers are. It gives law enforcement an end-to-end view, to leverage a real-time, live stream. Officers can see other incidents that are happening immediately. This will play a key role at the Super Bowl, where there will be close to 1,000 officers from 40 law enforcement agencies.”
Zell said 40 agencies have signed on to SecuroNet so far for the Super Bowl. “The goal is to help keep the public safe,” he added.
Zell said SecuroNet works with a partner named Eagle Eye, which is based in Florida. “Their core focus is drones, and we can connect into that. From our end, it doesn’t matter what the camera source is. Their drones can feed into a video stream and get a live view from one spot.”
He cited another Minneapolis company that makes “smart” parking meters. “They contacted us. They put cameras on parking meters. It’s like a computer on a stick. The meter has a digital screen and three HD cameras inside.”
Some St. Paul business owners have recently contacted SecuroNet, Zell added, because of the city’s problem with transients loitering in the skyways. “The property owners got fed up, and the city passed an ordinance requiring owners to physically check the skyways a certain number of times per day. The business owners can use our equipment, and count it as their check.”
With cameras high and low, in the air and on the street, Super Bowl fans and out-of-town visitors can be sure of at least one thing when they visit the Twin Cities next year. Wherever they go and whatever they do, somebody will be watching.
As Austin put it, “It’s staggering how many times an average person shows up on camera.”