The Windsor Police Service (WPS) is asking residents and business owners to register their security cameras.
WPS has launched its 'Security Camera Registry.'
Speaking on AM800's The Morning Drive, Acting Windsor police chief Jason Bellaire says it's an important program that allows the public to contribute to the police service's community safety initiative.
He says it will assist police with crime and other community concerns through the registry.
"We can prioritize the cameras that are registered in a relevant area and we can prioritize it for terms of evidence and data retention cycle," he says. "So some of these cameras have a very quick data retention cycle so it's important that we identify the location before that stuff's erased."
Bellaire says the registry shows investigators where the cameras are.
"There will be an easy walk thru step on our online reporting system but what everyone should know is time and evidence are really valuable when conducting investigations and the quicker officers can attend or identify potential locations with video surveillance then the more rapidly we can move through the steps of our criminal investigations," says Bellaire.
He adds the program is completely voluntary.
"We can't log in and monitor from anyone's camera," he says. "It's just simply a registry that allows us to look at a glance what security potential evidence from security footage we would have in the area of a crime."
Windsor police shared a video Wednesday morning about the registry on its social media pages.