City allows police access to private cameras in a split vote after heated meeting
The Dayton City Commission has given the police department the green light to use technology that will allow officers to access live and recorded video from privately owned security cameras.
The commission voted 3 to 2 Wednesday to allow the use of the technology after an occasionally contentious, two-hour meeting in which commissioners clashed and had some heated exchanges with police officials.
Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr. and Commissioners Chris Shaw and Matt Joseph voted in favor of the police department’s request to use Fusus video aggregation technology, while Commissioners Darryl Fairchild and Shenise Turner-sloss voted against the move.
The vote illustrates a continuing 3-2 split on the commission on multiple policy issues.
Commissioners Turner-sloss and Fairchild said they would have supported the use of Fusus technology on a trial basis, but they said they did not want to approve the use beyond a pilot program.
Dayton police plan to use the technology downtown during a pilot program that is expected to last until the end of June. The pilot program is being paid for by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
Turner-sloss and Fairchild said the whole point of the pilot program is to see how well the technology works and what impact if might have on the community.
“I mean this is what the pilot is for, right, to check for the effectiveness,” Fairchild said.
Commissioners Shaw and Joseph and Mayor Mims said the city will have plenty of opportunities to evaluate the Fusus system and the commission can always decide not to approve funding for it if members feel it is problematic or does not meet expectations.
“We can’t know that without going through a pilot ... and it’s better when it is paid for by somebody else,” Shaw said. “This is a gift — as we go down this road and it doesn’t work out, if we find some kind of bias that’s demonstrated, then we can tweak that.”
Video-sharing
Fusus will allow the police department to access live streaming video and recorded footage from cameras that belong to businesses and other private owners.
The program is entirely voluntary, and camera owners can dictate under what circumstances police can access their video and devices, said Dayton police Major Paul Saunders.
Police already ask for and receive video footage all the time from people who own private security cameras, and the Fusus system will simply speed up and streamline that process, he said.
Camera owners can give police access to their live streams on a conditional basis, where they set the terms, Saunders said.
Police also plan to create a Fusus camera registry. Camera owners who participate notify police that they have private security cameras and provide their locations and their contact info so officers can more easily reach out when incidents occur and they are seeking video evidence, police said.
Feedback
Multiple people who spoke in favor of the Fusus technology said the security cameras police will be able to access are located in public spaces where people should not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
“I think it is a very good idea both as a deterrent and a way to identify perpetrators and crime more quickly and efficiently than the means currently used,” said Lindy Mcdonough, president of the Hillview Neighborhood Association.
Accessing live video feeds will let police know what kinds of situations officers will face before they respond to incidents and calls for service, Saunders said.
But some community members said the city and police department have not imposed meaningful safeguards to ensure that police will not misuse how and when they access live and recorded video.
Destiny Brown, a community organizer and a member of the Coalition on Public Protection, said she fears Fusus technology could contribute to disparities and overpolicing.
Police officials said it’s always better to know what officers are going to find and encounter at a scene before they respond.
“We are in one of the most violent cities in the United States of America,” said Dayton police Chief Kamran Afzal. “We don’t know what we’re walking (into) half the time.”