Lodi PD recruits community to enhance safety

Sep. 29—Although it's only about a week old, the Lodi Police Department's new video surveillance camera database has had dozens of residents and businesses sign up.

Sgt. Eric Shaw said within a week of launching the online database, 45 systems throughout Lodi have been registered.

"The response has been great," he said. "We've had a lot of people sign up already. It's giving the public the ability to provide information to us, and it helps us work in partnership with the community to enhance our safety efforts."

Shaw has spearheaded the registration database development over the last few months for the department, and said signing up takes a matter of minutes.

Any surveillance system, from cameras installed on rooftops to Ring doorbells, can be registered. All residents and businesses have to do is register at the department's website by providing an address or business name.

The department will not be monitoring your camera at all times, Shaw said, nor will it be collecting personal information through your system.

Rather, once registered, your system will be part of a pin-drop map similar to Google maps, to which only investigators will have access.

When an incident like a robbery, burglary or assault occurs in a certain part of town, investigators will be able to see on their cell phones which properties in the area are registered on the database.

Investigators will then send emails to registrants whose systems may have captured something on video, asking for footage.

A link is provided in the email so registrants can then simply upload footage to the database for investigators to view.

Once uploaded, the footage is immediately available to investigators for review.

Shaw said uploaded footage could help investigators identify suspects and solve crimes faster.

Registration is entirely voluntary, and personal information such as names and addresses will not be disclosed to the public or other City of Lodi departments.

The database is just one of three the department is launching this month to step up its public safety efforts.

By next Wednesday, the department will have a Letter of Authority database up and running as well that will allow officers the ability to investigate incidents of trespassing and loitering on private property.

All property owners have to do is submit a Letter of Authority that will be accessible to officers in the event they see something suspicious on your property.

The property must have proper signage, and the letter is valid for 364 days.

"The property owners don't have to be there," Shaw said. "This will give us permission to enter the property and investigate or even clear the premises. This will help us with people who continually hang out on private properties when they are not allowed to do so."

Property owners must remember to renew their letters of authority themselves.

Another database the department is excited about, Shaw said, is a Special Needs Citizen Registry, which will help officers better serve and protect at-risk individuals during critical situations.

Residents will be able to provide information about a loved one who may have special needs, such as height, weight and color, along with a photograph.

You'll also be asked to list any triggers your loved one might have, possible locations they go in the event they are missing, ailments, and whether or not they are verbal, among other descriptions.

"Let's say we find someone at Church Street and Lodi Avenue, and they are non-verbal," Shaw said. "We can look at the database and see if anyone on there meets this person's description immediately, and hopefully reunite them with their loved ones. In the past, it took time to reunite someone with their family. With this, we'll have that information at our fingertips."

The special needs registry will also have a pin-drop map for officers that will show where at-risk individuals might reside and give them the ability to take them home.

He said the special needs registry will also work in tandem with the video surveillance camera registry, as officers will be able to track lost or missing people who might have been captured on film. And while you must be a Lodi resident or property owner to register with the video camera or letter of authority databases, anyone who has visited or frequents the city can register their loved one with the special needs registry, Shaw said.

All three databases are entirely voluntary, and all three are in both English and Spanish. Shaw said he is hoping to add Urdu to the databases in the future.

For more information about the video surveillance database, visit www.lodi.gov/1300/Security-Camera-Registration.

The department will provide links to the other databases once they are launched.