Have a surveillance camera on your property? Guelph Police want you to consider registering it with the SCANinGuelph program to help keep your neighbourhood safe.
Anyone with a security camera on their property, be it a business or a home, can register their camera with the Security Cameras Assisting Neighbours in Guelph program, which launched in 2022. So far, around 150 business owners and residents have registered.
“Essentially what they're doing is just providing us their contact information and the location of the camera,” said media relations coordinator Scott Tracey. Registering does not automatically give police access to footage – it only identifies the location of the camera.
Typically, officers will go door-to-door in the area of an incident looking for footage, “which is obviously quite labour intensive.” But with the program, if there is a vehicle theft, break and enter or major incident being investigated at a certain address, officers can use the app on their phone to see which properties in the area have registered security cameras.
“Then they can go to that person and say, I see that you're registered on our system, would you be willing to have a look at the footage and maybe share that with us? It provides quicker access and less labour intensive access to cameras in the area.”
Tracey noted the program is completely voluntary – anyone who registers is not obligated to share their footage.
“At that point, that person can say, I'm not comfortable sharing that with you. And that's fine. That's entirely their prerogative,” he said. But having the option can speed up the process during the investigation.
“It's a way for residents and property owners and business owners to assist in keeping their own neighbourhoods safe,” he said.
“If someone's going around to particular neighbourhoods, either breaking into cars or breaking into houses, it's certainly a benefit to those who live in that neighbourhood for that person to get caught, because that’s a neighbourhood they could potentially target again,” he said, adding that it’s similar to a neighbourhood watch program where everyone is watching out for each other.
“The hope is, if there's enough of these cameras, then it could actually deter crime from happening in the first place,” he said.
You can visit the website for more information about SCANinGuelph, or to register your business or home camera.
