Nearly 900 people registered their security camera to 'Keep Virginia Beach Safe'

    VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia (WTKR) -- The Keep Virginia Beach Safe program allows residents and property owners to register their cameras, providing law enforcement with vital information that can assist investigations.

Joining the program is voluntary. The owner of a security camera in Virginia Beach can go online and register its location with the police department. The idea is to give an officer a reference of what tools they may have at their disposal if they're responding to an incident in a certain area or neighborhood.

The Keep Virginia Beach Safe program works in tandem with the Real Time Crime Center, giving law enforcement critical and actionable information that speeds up investigations and emergency response to keep residents, guests, and businesses safer.

"Last year unfortunately we had a few burglaries and if it wasn't for our cameras, we wouldn't be able to foil a crime and we were literally able to do that with sharing the footage" said a business owner at the oceanfront who supports the program.

In the past, investigators had to rely on eyewitnesses to piece together pertinent information, this process could span across days and sometimes months.

"We've integrated 1,980 integrated cameras right now. The majority of these are city cameras" said Brandon Kyle, Police Service Manager with Virginia Beach police.

894 people have signed up for this program, registering their cameras. Technology from the Virginia Beach Police Department's Real Time Crime Center has been able to keep Virginia Beach safer, police say. Brandon added that the program has been instrumental in cracking down on incidents by utilizing families and business owners security cameras.

"We've engaged in terms of helping looking at traffic accidents and taking a look at cameras, hit and runs, theft. When it comes to our violent crimes we've helped engage investigations on shootings and homicides" Brandon added.

Camera registration does not grant VBPD access to live video feeds. Instead, it supplies the department with the camera's location information, which can be utilized during incidents.

Investigators will contact camera owners only if they need assistance collecting camera footage. In the event of a theft for example, VBPD may request from a store owner a recorded video to hasten the process of evidence gathering.

Registering a camera with VBPD is quickly and easily done through the self-service portal by visiting: virginiabeachpd.fususregistry.com