KENT COUNTY, Mich. — A new program in Kent County will let businesses and schools provide surveillance video to the Kent County Sheriff's Office for the purposes of solving crime and assisting deputies in active threat situations.
The program, referred to as Connect Kent County, was publicly announced on Tuesday by Kent County Board Chair Ben Greene during a state of the county address.
"We're rethinking how we use technology and partnerships to strengthen public safety countywide," Greene said.
Those willing to participate in the program can, on their own volition, allow the Kent County Sheriff's Office to access a live feed of their security cameras at its Realtime Intelligence Center where the center's own dash camera, body camera and drone feeds can be used alongside the community video feeds "to give law enforcement agencies across Kent County the ability to respond faster, work smarter and coordinate more effectively," Greene said.
"This partnership model is what makes Connect Kent County so powerful," he said. "At a time when others are considering weakening law enforcement, Kent County is strengthening it."
On Thursday, I toured the Realtime Intelligence Center to see how the Connect Kent County program would work in action.
"There's broad community support for this," Kent County Sheriff's Office Capt. Joel Roon said, referencing similar programs at police departments around the country. "But it's got to be done right, and that's what we want to do."
Schools
As it relates to schools, Capt. Roon says those who participate in the program would grant the sheriff's office access to a live feed of their exterior security cameras, a feed that's only to be viewed in the event of an active incident such as a shooting.
"The system is truly for emergency response," he said.
An MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between participating schools and the sheriff's office will govern when and how the Realtime Intelligence Center is permitted to access the feeds.
"We want to put guardrails in place that essentially prevent misuse," Capt. Roon said.
While the sheriff's office has already worked with a number of schools to begin implementing the program, the process of integrating the hardware and software into all school districts in Kent County — at least those willing to participate — will take "years, not months."
"It is a significant lift," Capt. Roon said.
Businesses
As for businesses, Capt. Roon says the sheriff's office — with exception to active incidents — won't actively monitor the security camera feeds but rather sporadically use them as a way to solve crimes, such as a car theft that may have happened near a businesses that opted into the program.
Whenever any of these cameras are accessed, when and how they were used, as well as who used them, is automatically entered into a database at the sheriff's office and participants in the program — both businesses and schools — can request to see the logs for their own cameras.
"If a community partner came to us and said, 'Hey, Joel. How often were you in my cameras last month?' We can run that report and say, 'Well, we were in there four times. Looks like investigators had a situation — an armed robbery — that they were investigating.'"
"Every click is recorded," he said. "If there's not a good reason to be in a camera, then that's on us to hold that user accountable."
Homeowners
In addition to schools and businesses, homeowners can participate in Connect Kent County, too.
While they won't provide a live feed of their property's cameras to the sheriff's office, they can add them to a registry. Then, whenever a crime happens in their neighborhood, deputies can then send a message to those in the area who are a part of the registry, providing them a link through which to upload any relevant footage.
"I think that it's a great idea as a potential to deter criminals," Julie Slade, an Ada resident, said.
While such police programs could "be a slippery slope for harmful government surveillance," Slade says the "benefits outweigh the risks."
"I think as long as the government doesn't use it for unlawful purposes, it can be a great tool," she said.
Criticisms and concerns
During my interview with Capt. Roon, I asked him about people who may be uncomfortable with law enforcement having access to security cameras across the county.
"The Big Brother concerns, we hear them," he said.
"Big Brother is the type of thing that happens in the shadows, and it happens in the dark of night," he said. "We are rolling this out transparently."
I also asked if ICE (United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement) would have access to the system.
"We don't have authority over immigration," Capt. Roon said. "We do work in conjunction with ICE, whether it be for the housing of a detainee or for whatever happens in our jail. But, no, ICE doesn't have access to the system."
What's next?
The website for Connect Kent County, where residents and businesses can register for the program, will launch "in the coming months."
"This is really a way to do more with less," Capt. Roon said. "To take the same team but accomplish more."
