VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Virginia Beach Police Department (VBPD) is taking the next steps to keep the city safe by partnering with the community.
On Wednesday, the VBPD announced the launch of its Keep Virginia Beach Safe program. This is part of the Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) initiative, which aims to create a safer community and to make crimes easier to solve.
"I think most people want to live in safe communities and so this is just one more layer that we have to ultimately help people to then help the police department," said Brandon Kyle, Virginia Beach's Police Services Manager.
The program gives residents the option to register their personally owned cameras as a part of the RTCC through the self-service portal. The VBPD says this will help law enforcement get critical information that will help speed up investigations and emergency responses.
If residents choose to integrate with the RTCC, access will be shared with the VBPD in emergency situations. Residents can also customize their sharing preferences within the portal.
"If we had an incident in or around the area, the Virginia Beach Police could reach out to that resident, get some details, ask them to look at their camera system, and have them send them back anything they think that could be helpful," said Kyle.
The VBPD shares that camera registration will not provide live video access to them, but they will have information on camera locations. They say investigators would reach out to the camera owner if they need assistance collecting camera footage in a certain area.
The Keep Virginia Beach Safe program is the newest addition that serves the RTCC initiative. Other services that help the program to operate nearly 24 hours a day include Computer Aided Dispatch for 911 calls, license plate readers, gunshot detection activations, social media monitoring, and the city-wide camera network.