MORRISVILLE, Pa. – The police chief here is asking residents and business owners to assist the department by allowing it to use the Internet to view feeds from their security cameras facing the street.
“The thefts in the borough for the most part occur outside and could be captured by cameras placed around a home,” Police Chief George McClay told the Bucks County Courier Times. “This program will help the police department to arrest offenders. It has not been determined, but there may be a discount on homeowners insurance for deploying cameras on the exterior of a home.”
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The more residents and businesses involved in the Morrisville Community Cam Program, the better chances that crime rates will go down, the chief added. The program currently includes live video feeds from public schools with the potential to expand to a parochial school.
Mayor Dave Rivella told the newspaper the video surveillance program is different from those traditionally offered where participants register their security cameras with the police. “With recent updates in technology that include digital cloud storage, it is now possible for the Morrisville Police Department to have the ability to access, with permission, the video storage of borough residents and businesses,” he said.
McClay told the newspaper he believes the Morrisville Community Cam Program is a first of its kind in the area.
“At this point, I don’t know of any other department that has a program like this for their citizens. The access to the videos is key to the success of this project, and we will be able to access quickly through the iCloud,” he said.
