"Safe Santee" would use existing private and publicly owned camera systems to share information in real time with the Sheriff's Department. The program allows deputies to obtain immediate video access so they can plan on the most appropriate response to a crime in progress.
The Santee City Council signaled its approval of the program last month following a presentation by San Diego County Sheriff's Lt. Mike Rand.
City Council member Laura Koval said she loves to watch "See No Evil" on the ID Network, in which "they solve all crimes, mostly murders, using video." She recalled an episode where they solved a murder outside of a bar in Spring Valley with video assistance.
"For me, I think this is a great use of the technology... [especially] if it helps keep our streets safe and murderers put away," she said
Council member Rob McNelis said he's been a big proponent of the city and Sheriff's Department working together in this way, especially to keep an extra set of eyes on the city's parks and trails.
But McNelis also expressed concern about privacy issues, especially 10, 20 years into the future, as technology continues to grow.
"It's a big brother thing for me, like taking away my guns — don't do it," McNelis said.
Rand said Lemon Grove signed on a year ago for "Safe Lemon Grove" as a pilot program and that other cities, including Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas and Miami, use similar community-integrated programs.
A report from the city said that a camera at Berry Street Park helped the Sheriff's Department get information in real time when they received a call through 911 that a fight between gang members had broken out at the park. Officers were able to look in real time, assess the situation and had an officer drive by. There ended up being no incident at the park.
Like the Lemon Grove program, "Safe Santee" will reinforce community policing and allow residents to actively participate in combating crime, increasing neighborhood security and giving deputies quicker response times and smoother investigations.
"I will tell you in the city of Lemon Grove we really did not get a lot of pushback," Rand said, adding that he did sit down with a few community members to let them know that "nobody's sitting at a monitor watching every move they make, so that they [would] feel better about that."
The main benefit of the surveillance program is to deter crime, Rand said.
"Let's be honest, we can't be everywhere," he said. "In the city of Lemon Grove, the sheriff's own cameras that we have put up in several public areas within the city have been highly visible. We want them as highly visible as possible because we want people who are going to potentially commit a crime to see those. At night, we have a flashing white light to draw people's attention to it. All of them are in very visible areas, and there's a sheriff's star that's put onto those camera systems."
Rand explained that there are two different types of community participants that can elect to become part of the program — registered users and exclusive users.
Registered users are residents or businesses with existing security cameras who would register with Safe Santee. The registry will help the Sheriff's Department identify a particular location as having cameras that it can ask for content from should the need arise. There is no cost involved for registered users.
Exclusive users are residents or businesses that use a camera system that is compatible with the Sheriff's Department's system. This user would allow an authorized sheriff's representative to have direct access to live video content. Depending on an exclusive user's current security system, there may be costs associated with it, Rand said.
Rand said the Sheriff's Department only accepts and integrates privately owned cameras that users select, and that footage would be of exterior, public-facing views. And while privately owned cameras record the video footage, the Safe Santee platform would not.
The Sheriff's Department does not save any video footage provided by the system. All saved footage will be the property of the camera owner.
Rand said that Santee's own camera system may largely be incompatible with the sheriff's technology, but was hopeful that Santee would be updating its cameras at some point in the future and they would be able to partner with a newer system.
The Safe Santee program will be brought back to the City Council in December.
Santee City Attorney Shawn Hagerty said from a legal standpoint, there was still much research that would need to be done for the city to collaborate with the Sheriff's Department.
"We need the foundation of this program from the city's perspective to be very solid," he said. "So as it grows, anticipating what happens five, 10 years from now, I think that's really critical."
Rand said once the program gets City Council approval, there will be community forums, neighborhood watch meetings and a dedicated website for the program.
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