DAYTON — City commissioners voted to give Dayton police the final approval to implement a real-time information and video-gathering service to help keep downtown safe.
Wednesday night at a city commission meeting, commissioners voted 3-2 to approve the FUSUS system.
The use of FUSUS Real-Time Crime Center technology would provide live feeds to officers dealing with various investigations. Homeowners or business owners would have the option to opt in and allow either constant access or access upon request to their private video streams.
But not everyone in attendance at the meeting thought the technology was a good idea.
“As a community, there is a concern that each of these opportunities to present new technology without clearly defined safeguards, statistics, or independent evaluation provides opportunities for disparities and over-policing to continue and worsen,” Destiny Brown said at the meeting.
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While others agreed it was a good idea.
“I think it’s a very good idea both as a deterrent and as a way to identify perpetrators and crime more quickly and efficiently,” Lindy McDonough of Dayton said.
Dayton police will use the technology downtown as part of a pilot program.
Police said the system would be very valuable when chaotic events unfold, like the shots that were fired during the Dayton Children’s parade in November. Police made an arrest about a week later after very slow evidence gathering.
“It took us over five days to get any video for that incident,” Dayton Police Maj. Jimmy Mullins, Central Business District Commander, told News Center 7.
Commissioner Matt Joseph said he also hopes this speeds up the process for gathering evidence.
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“There are cameras out there, public-facing cameras that police go and ask video from, so this is really just speeding up that process so just at the click of a button, we get that information,” Joseph said.
Commissioner Shenise Turner-Sloss said she worries about the impacts this will have on local communities.
“In reviewing the impact report, I believe we’re missing some areas in terms of where the concerns are one is the overall adverse impact of Black and brown communities with the use of this technology,” Turner-Sloss said.
Commissioners Sloss and Darryl Fairchild voted against the plan.
Dayton Police Chief Kamran Afzal said the department will now go to businesses and see which ones would like to opt-in.
He hopes to have the program running in the next couple of months.
“It will help us investigate better and be able to come to a resolution quicker,” Afzal said.
The Ohio Attorney General’s office will pay for this pilot program which will run through June.
After that police will have to go back to city commissioners to pay for the technology long term.
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