Twelve closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras operated by the Peterborough police are now up and running in downtown Peterborough.
The installation of the 12 cameras was approved by Peterborough city council at its June 26th meeting.
The CCTV cameras are installed at the intersections of Alymer and Brock, George and Brock, Alymer and Hunter St. West, George and Hunter St. West, George and Simcoe, Alymer and Charlotte, George and Charlotte, Alymer and King, George and King, Alymer and Sherbrooke, and George and Sherbrooke, as well as at the Simcoe Street bus terminal.
Signage has also been posted notifying residents and visitors they are entering an area that may be monitored by CCTV cameras.
“As a service dedicated to public safety, we believe these cameras will be another tool in deterring and solving crime in our community,” says Peterborough police chief Stuart Betts in a media release.
The cameras are being funded in part by a $185,505 grant from the Ontario government’s CCTV grant program, a three-year $6-million program announced in 2020 for police services across the province, with the annual cost of operating the 12 cameras estimated at a maximum of $8,640.
According to a frequently asked questions page on the Peterborough Police Service website, only authorized members of the service will have access to the video.
“The video will be used to help solve crime after the fact,” Betts says, adding “There is a procedure in place that limits who and when video can be accessed.”
Unless there is an active incident in progress, police will not be monitoring the cameras in real time. Recorded video will be used by the police to investigate and solve crimes if criminal activity is reported in the areas where the cameras are situated.
The recorded video may be provided to other law enforcement agencies upon request for investigative purposes, and may be released to the public to help identify people of interest in investigations. All access to video is audited and those logs are stored for one year.
This story has been updated with a correction to one of the locations of the cameras.
