A few clarifications regarding the Surveillance Camera Registry:
First, we would like to thank all who have registered thus far. This will be a very useful tool for us if the need arises. It should be noted that we are only requesting residents / business owners to register that have a surveillance system located in the municipalities that we serve, which are Mount Penn Borough, Saint Lawrence Borough, Lower Alsace Township, and Oley Township. If you live or have a surveillance system outside of these municipalities (e.g. Exeter Township or the City of Reading), our department would likely never have a use for your system so you do not need to register it with us.
Also, it has come to our attention that some residents believe that this registry is going to be used so that the police department can access the registered surveillance systems and view the cameras live. That is completely inaccurate. To clarify, this is a voluntary registry that will be used if we are investigating a crime that occurred in a specific area. Our investigators will be able to pull up the registered systems on a map and see if there is one that is nearby. If there is and it is believed that the system may have caught something useful, we will contact the owner of that system and ask if they can view their saved footage during the timeframe that the crime was committed so that we can obtain potential video evidence and hopefully solve a case. We have solved many crimes in recent years with the help of our residents that have surveillance cameras so we are simply trying to enhance that investigative tool.
Thank you and please continue to register your systems with us via the link below!
https://berks.crimewatchpa.com/cbrpd/90887/webforms/camera-registry-form
