MPD launches Community Connect Milwaukee Program Powered by Fusus

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The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) announced Thursday the official launch of its latest public safety initiative, Community Connect Milwaukee—a Real Time Crime Center in the Cloud platform designed to provide “critical and actionable information that will help the department respond more efficiently to incidents, assist in expediting investigations, enhance emergency preparedness, and keep residents and businesses safer,” said MPD officials.

Powered by Fusus, the new platform includes a Public Security Camera Registry, an online portal for the public to register their security cameras in order to help solve neighborhood crimes.

MPD said officials held an informative meeting with the Business Improvement Districts prior to integrating this platform and obtained feedback that will be implemented. MPD is urging community members to register their cameras and help create a community-wide public safety ecosystem.

“Building real partnerships between our residents, businesses and our police department is the key to a successful public safety landscape,” said Chief Jeffrey Norman.

“Community Connect Milwaukee will enable us to operate more efficiently to create a safer city for our residents. I strongly urge all the security camera owners in the community to take part in this new program,” Norman added.

By setting up a voluntary camera registration process, it enables investigators to know almost immediately if video evidence might be available at a particular location and who to contact to retrieve it. Residents wanting to register a camera with MPD is quickly and easily done through the self-service portal at Camera Registration – Community Connect Milwaukee.

“I have asked everyone in Milwaukee to be part of our efforts to improve public safety. This is one way for residents to take part and make a difference,” Mayor Cavalier Johnson said.

“Milwaukee will be a safer city as efforts like this take hold,” Johnson added.

In addition to the camera registry, the Milwaukee Police Department is offering businesses the option to integrate their video security systems to include live video feeds to the department. By businesses installing a small CORE device on their network, businesses can share live video feeds with the department. To preserve privacy, live video can optionally be shared only on alert, using a smart phone app or manual trigger button, at the camera owner’s discretion. There is a cost associated with the Fusus hardware based on camera feeds.

Camera registration does not give live video access to the Milwaukee Police Department, it only gives them camera location information for use when an incident occurs. Investigators will contact camera owners only if they need assistance collecting camera footage. Any video files provided will be kept confidential and only used in the event of a criminal investigation.

To register or integrate your camera system with the Milwaukee Police Department or to learn more about Community Connect Milwaukee, please visit Community Connect Milwaukee and follow the instructions.