As the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred more online holiday shopping and home deliveries, the Washington Police Department is encouraging residents and businesses to take part in their Community Camera Program.

Police Chief Jim Lester says the program began last winter with about a dozen business or residential properties registering their security camera systems with the program. Lester says by having property owners’ systems registered with the police department, investigators can quickly identify nearby cameras that may have captured criminal activity. He says owners may be requested to allow law enforcement to view the camera footage in order to assist in an investigation, “You know a lot of times we’ll use business or residential systems to assist in our investigations and the owners may not even realize that their video system recorded a crime or the potential suspects. Knowing where we have these located throughout the city is important to us to help ultimately keep the community safer.”

Lester says officers will not have remote access or be able to access live feeds of any registered cameras. The program is completely voluntary, and no one is obligated to release recordings to the police department. To register your camera system, click here.