LAPD to launch Real-Time Crime Centers program amid concerns over use of surveillance cameras

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Los Angeles Police Department is just a few months away from accessing private surveillance cameras -- with permission -- from owners, merging those feeds with public security cameras and creating video networks that the agency says will help crack down on crime.

The LAPD briefed the Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday morning about its plans to create three Real-Time Crime Centers in three of its 21 divisions, giving the department almost instant access to video of crimes, allowing officers to quickly respond with more and better evidence.

"They (officers) can gain immediate access to that information, so they have a better chance of stopping the crime, protecting people from further harm and also identifying and bringing to justice those who are responsible," said LAPD Chief Michel Moore.

Moore said local businesses and residents would be able to register their surveillance cameras with the program and retain ownership of all video from their equipment. After a crime is reported, police would be able to see any relatable video and provide it to responding officers immediately.

"Technology today is a game-changer in the sense of our ability over the evolution of policing to simplify tasks, to get better and more accurate information, more timely. and allow us to go out and be more effective," said Moore.

But the idea of creating widespread camera networks throughout the city has some people complaining of potential privacy violations and inappropriate surveillance.

"All these things haven't solved retail crime -- they were never meant to," Matyos Kidane of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition told police commissioners during the meeting's public comment section. "It's just to fear-monger. It's just to increase these surveillance cameras."

The LAPD hopes to eventually have one Real-Time Crime Center in each of it's 21 divisions, Moore said, but will start with them in just three divisions: the Downtown Corridor, Hollywood and Van Nuys.

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Organized Retail Theft Task Force funding will pay for building the system... which is expected to be up and running by the second quarter of next year.