New 360

New 360-degree cameras are helping Peel police solve crimes in Brampton, mayor says

Mayor Patrick Brown says cameras helped police in over 200 investigations in past year

How 360-degree cameras are helping Peel police fight crime

New camera technology deployed in Brampton helped Peel police in more than 200 investigations in the past year, Mayor Patrick Brown says.

The city has installed 360-degree high-resolution cameras, along with automated licence plate recognition technology, at 50 intersections at a cost of $2 million, Brown told reporters at a news conference on Monday.

"We have a goal, a very clear goal, in Brampton, and that is to make our city and Peel Region the most inconvenient place in the country to commit a crime," Brown said.

Brown said the cameras are a "powerful investigative tool," for Peel Regional Police in investigations spanning violent crime, hit and run collisions, auto theft and extortions.

The cameras use four lenses, providing a full picture that shows crime in real time, Brown said.

"This is a message to organized crime, and anyone that wants to commit a criminal activity in Brampton, that you will be caught, you will be on camera, and that digital evidence will be available to Peel police to make sure that you are held accountable," Brown said.

According to the City of Brampton, the cameras can provide information such as incident date and time, ​licence plate numbers, vehicle information, including make, model and colour.

Community consulted through telephone town hall

The mayor said the community was consulted through a telephone town hall, which had just under 8,000 participants. About 84 per cent of the participants expressed support for the cameras, he said.

In an interview later Monday, Brown said the only people who should be concerned about the loss of privacy through the technology are those committing crimes.

"There was very little opposition to this, understanding that any privacy that is lost is only for those committing criminal acts, and if they want to protect their prvacy, don't commit a crime in Brampton," he said.

Peel police Deputy Chief Anthony Odoardi said what is new is the integration of the technology with live monitoring from police.

"These pieces of technology transmit right into our community safety operation centre in real time. That is, we have a human in the loop monitoring what is happening when they are notified of an incident," Odoardi said.

Odoardi said police are not using the cameras to conduct surveillance on the community or facial recognition, but rather for "situational awareness" of what is happening in the community.

"We target the right people, those who commit crimes, those who drive erratically, those who put our communities at risk," he said.

Digital evidence from the camera helped police to identify a suspect in a domestic homicide and to identify a suspect who shot two people in a local park. The second suspect was immediately arrested, he said.

In a news release, the city said Brampton selected Genetec Inc., a Canadian security technology company, to supply the licence plate reader cameras, while it selected Axis Communications, a Swedish company, to provide the 360-degree cameras.

With files from Mercedes Gaztambide