Norristown Police ask for access to home and business security cameras to solve crime
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- Police in Norristown asked the public for access to their surveillance cameras to help solve and prevent crime.
"I am here to help the police," said Jennie Choe, who lives in Norristown.
She wanted to help officers stop the drug activity she said happened in right front of her home.
"They can't do it alone. They need the community's help and support," she said. "They have their set of eyes, and the community is their set of eyes."
That is why she registered her home surveillance camera with NorrCam, the Norristown Police Department Community Camera Registration Program, which was launched at the beginning of March and already has nearly a dozen residents and business owners on board.
"An individual can go online, take 10 minutes to register their cameras to the Norristown Police Department," Police Chief Dr. Jacqueline Bailey-Davis said.
Bailey-Davis stressed the program is confidential, voluntary and does not send a live video feed from a home into the department.
"We only contact the individual when there are some incidences in their vicinity. And if they want to send us some video footage, they can send it to us so that we can help crush some of this crime in our community," Bailey-Davis said.
Again, the program is only a few weeks old. However, CBS Philadelphia spoke to one neighbor who already says she believes this will help keep criminals out of Norristown.
"It definitely could be a signal for others not to enter, because of the camera being there and stuff like that, them being on surveillance," Sydni Middleton said as she visited her grandmother's home in Norristown, where there is a Ring doorbell camera.
Middleton said she hopes her grandma will join the NorrCam program.
"I definitely will talk to her about enrolling the camera, and I think she will be more than happy to do that," she said.
