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New camera system would require support of local businesses, residents

Orillia Police Services Board hoping new program will replace 'irreparable' surveillance cameras downtown
2019-02-26 OPSB Veronica Eaton and Laurie Christensen
Orillia OPP Insp. Veronica Eaton, left, and Orillia Police Services Board vice-chair Laurie Christensen are shown in this file photo. Nathan Taylor/OrilliaMatters

The Orillia Police Services Board is formally exploring a new surveillance camera system that gives community policing a new meaning.

At its meeting Tuesday, the board directed staff to report on the cost of implementing a community-wide camera system that would see private businesses and residents encouraged to install cameras and join a registry that can be accessed by police.

The system is known as SCRAM (security camera resource and mapping) in Halton Region, where it has been “a great success,” said Mayor Steve Clarke, who chairs the board.

The matter will go before the city’s budget committee next week, when it will discuss capital requests.

Earlier this month, council approved a motion to send a $150,000 request for a new system to budget committee. At that time, Clarke noted the police services board was going to look into alternative options, such as SCRAM.

The mayor said he sees the benefits, which include less responsibility from the municipality, as the OPP would oversee the program. The city could still have a role to play, though. It could help with marketing and promoting the system.

The board is also looking at creating a grant program as an incentive for people to install cameras — on top of the existing incentive of cheaper insurance rates that usually apply to those who have cameras.

The current camera system, installed in 2013, “is now inoperable and irreparable,” staff wrote in a report.

“It’s on its last legs. It’s a shadow of its former self,” Clarke said.

He is confident a new system will be in place in 2020.

If the city chooses to go with a SCRAM model, there could still be gaps in coverage as a business’s or individual’s participation in the program would be voluntary. In that case, “we would have to contemplate putting up our own cameras,” Clarke said.

Some of that cost could be covered with the board’s operating funding that would be freed up from the existing system, he added.

Orillia OPP Insp. Veronica Eaton is open to a SCRAM system.

“We do that to an extent now. We canvass to see if people have surveillance systems. By having it on a registry, that could help us even more,” she said, noting it could free up police resources that are used while canvassing during an investigation. “It could certainly create efficiencies for us.”


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Nathan Taylor

About the Author: Nathan Taylor

Nathan Taylor is the desk editor for Village Media's central Ontario news desk in Simcoe County and Newmarket.
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