About

What is it?

Camsafe is a CCTV and security video registry aimed at keeping our community safe and assisting police solve crime.

Think of it like Neighbourhood Watch 2.0.

The program is set up to be a registry of anyone who owns security cameras, CCTV systems or doorbell cams in the City of Belleville. Only police have access to the database of registrants. Camsafe only requests basic contact information and camera locations – nothing else. No account information or specifics required. And you can change or delete your information at any time.

All this program is aimed at doing is providing a starting point for police officers to find video footage to assist an investigation.

For example, if there was a break and enter to a home on a city street, the investigating officer can log onto Camsafe and much like Google Maps, geofence an area and see if there are anyone who has registered a camera in the area. From that point, the officer – using the contact information provided – would request the footage from the owner.

A wee little bit of history

Inspired by similar projects in Red Deer Alberta (reddeercapture.ca) and in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia (safecam.phillypolice.com), Camsafe sought to bring a registry to the next level through community sponsorship and integration.

In 2020, Alarm Systems (alarmsys.com) partnered with Belleville Police (police.belleville.on.ca) and leading-edge web designers Floating Point (floating-point.com) to develop a separate, innovative website to house the initiative.

In early 2021 as the project set to launch, partnerships were developed with government agencies and commercial businesses to ensure registered locations of cameras encompassed all regions and areas of the municipality.

Partnerships aside, the success of Camsafe is built on the participation of the residents of Belleville – so please, if you have security cameras in your home, consider registering your contact information. In the coming year, Camsafe is looking to expand to all regions of Hastings and Prince Edward counties – offering up a website of video coverage to keep our community safe and solve crime.

For more information about Camsafe or how you could partner with us, please contact us.