On Tuesday, Deputy Pat Ryan met with Dutchess County leaders at the Sheriff’s Office to announce a new video surveillance program that they expect will help law enforcement catch more criminals in the act and, in some cases, even prevent crimes from occurring.
The Real-Time Crime Monitoring System is an optional, cloud-based program for businesses, houses of worship, schools and nonprofits that allows them to share live security camera feeds directly with local police.
The system would enable police to respond to ongoing crimes.
Rep. Ryan said he secured just over a million dollars in federal grants for the county’s real-time crime monitoring system.
At the press conference on Tuesday, the top representatives of the two major parties at the district and state level shook many hands and praised each other.
“You haven’t heard anything about (political) parties or anything,” Ryan said. “This is about security.”
As part of the surveillance program, an organization can optionally share live video from all of its surveillance cameras to the police via a virtual cloud.
An artificial intelligence component would allow police to receive alerts about suspicious or criminal activity as soon as it develops, rather than minutes – or hours – later when someone calls 911.
“We can monitor the situation and dispatch vehicles immediately,” Dutchess County Sheriff Kirk Imperati said in an interview after the press conference.
Imperati told News 12 that despite some privacy concerns, he has received mostly positive feedback on the plan.
“When people come or move to Dutchess County – we have over 300,000 residents – they want safe schools,” he said. “They want safe streets. They want their businesses to be safe.”
News 12 visited the new headquarters of the youth and family law group Community Matters 2 on North Hamilton Street, where staff are expanding the center’s monitoring system.
Community Matters 2 executive director L’Quette Taylor said while he had concerns about privacy and abuse, he was confident real-time crime monitoring would give his clients greater security and peace of mind.
“As a nonprofit organization – I personally work with children and families – I would choose that,” Taylor said.
Funding should be available in January and the system will be up and running by spring, Imperati said, adding that he already has a long list of local businesses and nonprofits that have agreed to share their live video feeds.
Rep. Ryan said he also secured just over a million dollars in federal funding to modernize the county’s radio communications system.
Imperati said these changes would significantly improve communication between agencies.
